Beaches (2017)

What makes Beaches (2017) worth your time is the way it treats friendship like a lifelong duet—messy, heartfelt, and ultimately sustaining—anchored by Idina Menzel’s powerhouse voice that can turn a simple moment into something you feel in your chest. The movie has a warm, glossy TV-movie vibe, moving through years with an easy emotional clarity, and it leans into the push-and-pull of two very different women learning how to stay in each other’s orbit. When it works best, it’s because the adult leads share a lived-in chemistry that makes the bond believable even when the story hits familiar beats. If you’re looking for a subtle reinvention, this may feel straightforward, but if you want a comfort-watch tearjerker with a strong musical highlight and an earnest heart, it delivers.

Beaches (2017) is clearly aiming for a big, tear-jerking story about two very different women whose friendship endures for decades, with music and melodrama baked in. The problem is it feels like it’s speed-running emotional milestones, so the bond that’s supposed to wreck you can come off thin, rushed, and oddly dated rather than earned. If you want deep character development and a slow-burn friendship that truly settles in, this TV-movie runtime may leave you feeling like you watched the highlights reel instead of the full journey. Still, if you’re in the mood for a straightforward, easy-to-watch comfort drama with a few heartfelt moments and you’re not precious about the original, it can do the job.