Beaches (Bette Midler)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nine years since we watched the film ‘Beaches’, and we’d totally forgotten what it was about. It was made in 1988, in a time when people had longer attention spans, so it’s over two hours - and last night, when we watched, we were captivated right from the start, unaware of the time passing.

Bette Midler is the main character, playing ‘CC’, who’s clearly a well-known and popular singing when we meet her at the start. She’s just finished rehearsing for a major concert when she’s handed a note - perhaps a telegram - which causes her to abandon everyone, and race to the airport. She doesn’t even tell anyone why she’s leaving.

CC is unable to get on a plane, so she rents a car and drives through the night. As she does so, she reminisces, and the majority of the film is a series of flashbacks, telling the story of her friendship with Hillary (Barbara Hershey) a girl who is different from her in just about every respect.

CC and Hillary meet when they are eleven. CC is street-wise, with a pushy mother who wants to exploit her talent. The 11-year-old CC is brilliantly played by Mayim Bailik, so much so that it was hard to believe she is not closely related to Bette Midler. I have no idea when the actresses switched during the years that are covered.

Hillary (whose 11-year-old self is played by Marcie Leeds) is wealthy, pretty, naive and lonely. Her father is distant, her mother died when she was younger, and she’s being brought up by an aunt. But she and CC decide to stay in touch, and they write letters over the years although they don’t meet again until they are adults.

It’s a wonderful friendship, which only starts to fray at the edges when CC gradually becomes more successful. She’s a remarkably self-centred person who doesn’t seem to care much for anyone (other than, perhaps, Hillary) as her career is all-absorbing. Hillary is a brilliant lawyer, but gives up her career when she gets married, and CC is very disapproving.

The script is excellent, the pace exactly right to tell the story. There are some light-hearted parts, and one very bawdy scene where Hillary and her husband disapprove of a musical CC is in. There’s also a great deal of poignancy towards the end, and both the women have to come to terms with what their friendship really means.

It’s only at the very end that we discover why CC has rushed away from her concert, finally putting her ambition aside for the sake of someone else. It’s all extremely moving, with some positive scenes right at the end.

The rating was originally 15 but it was changed to 12 (PG-12 in the US) which seems about right to me. There are a few instances of bad language, but they’re not inappropriate or excessive. There are a couple of intimate scenes but they’re tastefully done, and while there are innuendoes and casual talk about one-night stands and infidelity, there’s nothing too overt. I don’t suppose anyone younger than about twelve or thirteen would be interested in it anyway, but I’d have no problem showing it to a reasonably mature teenager of about thirteen or older.

Definitely recommended if you like films of this kind: a character-based drama with a heart-wrenching climax.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Remember Me (Robert Pattison)

(Amazon UK link)

The film ‘Remember Me’ has been sitting in our drawer of DVDs to watch - either new ones, or those we haven’t seen for eight or nine years or more. We haven’t previously seen ‘Remember Me’, but neither of us can remember how we acquired it. Possibly from a church sale, or a thrift store. The blurb on the back made it sound quite heavy going, but last night, we finally decided to watch it.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like it in the early scenes. The film opens in 1991 with a young woman being mugged and then shot at a railway station, leaving a weeping daughter and devastated husband.

It then moves ten years later, where we meet Tyler (Robert Pattison) who is a college student, and who also works in a book shop. He and his friend Aidan (Tate Ellington) share a rather grungy apartment, and are out one evening when they get involved in some street violence. The police are contacted, but Tyler isn’t at all happy with how the situation is resolved, and gets into conflict with Neil (Chris Cooper). Neil is the bereaved husband from 1991, and who is evidently violent and judgemental.

Tyler’s father (Pierce Brosnan) is a wealthy businessman who gets into a lot of arguments with his son, and more-or-less ignores his nine-year-old daughter Caroline (Ruby Jerins). We quickly learn that Tyler had an older brother, Michael, who committed suicide a few years earlier. Tyler is still grieving, and is very protective of his sister. She’s rather a dreamer, and an artistic prodigy, and isn’t just neglected by her father, she’s bullied at school.

And then there’s Ally (Emilie de Ravin), Neil’s daughter, who lost her mother in the opening scenes. She’s a student too, in some of the same classes as Tyler. And Aiden suggests that his friend ask her out, and then treat her badly, to take revenge on her father. Tyler is reluctant, but finds Ally very attractive…

The back of the DVD says that this film is ‘terrifically powerful, hugely moving and totally compelling’. While blurbs often exaggerate, we thought this one absolutely correct. Despite my initial reservations, I was soon totally absorbed in the storyline. It’s quite heavy in places and I didn’t like the violence, nor the shocking ending. But there are some light-hearted scenes as Tyler and Ally’s friendship develops, and some clever dialogue. Then the subplots involving Caroline are poignant and moving, and provide an excellent contrast to the more active, often aggressive scenes involving Tyler.

We didn’t see the ending coming, until right before the climax. It would be a spoiler to give any hints - suffice it to say that I felt slightly cheated at first, but then realised how very powerful it was as a storyline. We watched the ‘making of’ documentary, which explained why the scriptwriter used a significant incident and made a film around it, bringing ordinary, flawed but likeable characters to life, to make the point about ordinary people being involved in unexpected situations.

The acting is excellent, the pace exactly right, the conversation believable. It’s a film we won’t forget; I don’t know if we’ll want to see it again in another few years, or whether it would be difficult to see it, knowing what was coming. But it’s one I would recommend, if only for a piece of important American social history.

The rating is 12 (PG-13 in the US), which slightly surprises me; I’d have thought 15 would be more appropriate. The violent scenes are unpleasant, the scenes of intimacy quite drawn-out (albeit showing nothing explicit) and there’s some bad language, as well as quite disturbing themes. Definitely not for impressionable children or sensitive teens.

But for older teens and adults, definitely recommended.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews