Beaches (1988) review

Superstar singer C.C. Bloom (Bette Midler), while rehearsing at the Hollywood Bowl, receives a phone call that something happened to her closest pal Hillary (Barbara Hershey) so, unable to get a flight out of Los Angeles to San Francisco, she rents a car to drive up to visit her; along the way, she reflects on the ups-and-downs of their friendship, starting off with meeting on the beach in Atlantic City, becoming pen-pals, slumming it in NYC, having petty fights, getting out of bad marriages, and so forth.  The sole purpose of this shameless movie - which is lethargically paced - seems to be about how C.C. "learns" to temper her ego and selfishness through witnessing her friend, who's a single mother, slowly dying from heart disease.  It isn't a good sign, either, when two of the side characters, Mayim Bialik as 11-year-old C.C. and Lainie Kazan as her mom-manager, are more fascinating than the leads.  It did well at the box office, however ... so maybe audiences just wanted to watch a sub-par tear-jerker with The Divine Miss M belting out "Wind Beneath My Wings."