by Josh Sewell
I was 17 when Practical Magic hit theaters in 1998, so seeing it wasn’t really at the top of my to-do list back then. Despite being a fan of both Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, the cult hit was one of those movies that was never on my radar. As such, I didn’t end up watching it until last weekend to get ready for the long-anticipated sequel.
My verdict after almost three decades? It’s not really good, but sometimes you’re in the mood for silly fun and ’90s cheese. Try to frown during a cutesy montage set to Faith Hill’s “This Kiss.” You can’t do it.
That doesn’t make Practical Magic a coherent movie, though. The plot and tone are chaotic, jumping around genres like a sugar-addled kid on the playground. In the span of 105 minutes, it tries to be a romcom, a tragic melodrama, a domestic violence thriller, a police procedural, a demonic possession flick and a rah-rah celebration of girl power. (Admittedly, I haven’t read Alice Hoffman’s novel, so I don’t know if this was also an issue in the source material.)
Regardless, Bullock and Kidman elevate the material as witchy Owens sisters Sally and Gillian. Stockard Channing and Dianne Weist are equally endearing as their batty aunts. However, anytime Aidan Quinn and Goran Visnjic show up, it’s like they suddenly teleported in from totally different movies.
Because my experience with the original was so recent, I went into Practical Magic 2 without a nostalgic attachment to the characters or the sequences beloved by longtime fans. Keep that in mind since I’m about to be a party pooper. These movies aren’t for me and that’s totally fine. Besides, the folks who are excited to see it probably don’t care what I think anyway.
The sequel doesn’t have a real reason to exist other than to get the band back together. The Owens family curse was supposedly broken at the end of the first one, theoretically eliminating any future romance-related tragedies. It seems like screenwriters Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel (working from The Book of Magic, a later Hoffman novel) realized that too – their first order of business is to immediately erase the original’s resolution so that nothing was fixed and nobody learned anything.
Practical Magic 2 picks up quite a while after the first film, although I don’t think it’s been 28 years for the characters like it has for us in the real world. For instance, the math doesn’t check out when it comes to Sally’s now-grown daughters Kylie and Antonia (recast with Joey King and Maisie Williams respectively). They should both be close to 40 by now, but the new actresses are in their late 20s.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter since all the characters have apparently been in a state of suspended animation the whole time. None of them have grown or changed very much. After about 30 minutes, the main story finally kicks in: when the dark origins of the family curse are revealed, Sally, Gillian and Kylie must travel to England and enlist the help of a dreamy, mysterious professor (Lee Pace) to finally put a stop to it. (Are we sure this time?)
Practical Magic 2 swaps out original director Griffin Dunne for Susanne Bier, who has previously worked with both Bullock (Bird Box) and Kidman (The Perfect Couple and The Undoing). Those collaborations were all direct-to-streaming projects, which might help explain why this 130-minute(!) sequel feels less like a movie and more like three episodes of a Netflix show you binge while doing laundry. Dunne wasn’t exactly Stanley Kubrick, but at least the original looked cinematic.
Aside from the enduring camaraderie among Bullock, Kidman (so refreshing to see her be funny again!), Weist and Channing, as well as charismatic smoldering from Pace (the underrated actor always gets exactly what kind of movie he’s in), not much else works. The pacing is sluggish; the mythology is jumbled and confusing; and intelligent characters are often forced to be stupid to keep the plot’s wheels spinning.
Perhaps most annoying of all, the movie’s final half-hour is actually pretty good – but man is it a slog to get there. After an overlong, turbulence-heavy flight, at least they manage to stick the landing.
Practical Magic 2 is rated PG-13 for some violent content, suggestive material and brief strong language. Now playing in theaters.
Grade: C-
My verdict after almost three decades? It’s not really good, but sometimes you’re in the mood for silly fun and ’90s cheese. Try to frown during a cutesy montage set to Faith Hill’s “This Kiss.” You can’t do it.
That doesn’t make Practical Magic a coherent movie, though. The plot and tone are chaotic, jumping around genres like a sugar-addled kid on the playground. In the span of 105 minutes, it tries to be a romcom, a tragic melodrama, a domestic violence thriller, a police procedural, a demonic possession flick and a rah-rah celebration of girl power. (Admittedly, I haven’t read Alice Hoffman’s novel, so I don’t know if this was also an issue in the source material.)
Regardless, Bullock and Kidman elevate the material as witchy Owens sisters Sally and Gillian. Stockard Channing and Dianne Weist are equally endearing as their batty aunts. However, anytime Aidan Quinn and Goran Visnjic show up, it’s like they suddenly teleported in from totally different movies.
Because my experience with the original was so recent, I went into Practical Magic 2 without a nostalgic attachment to the characters or the sequences beloved by longtime fans. Keep that in mind since I’m about to be a party pooper. These movies aren’t for me and that’s totally fine. Besides, the folks who are excited to see it probably don’t care what I think anyway.
The sequel doesn’t have a real reason to exist other than to get the band back together. The Owens family curse was supposedly broken at the end of the first one, theoretically eliminating any future romance-related tragedies. It seems like screenwriters Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel (working from The Book of Magic, a later Hoffman novel) realized that too – their first order of business is to immediately erase the original’s resolution so that nothing was fixed and nobody learned anything.
Practical Magic 2 picks up quite a while after the first film, although I don’t think it’s been 28 years for the characters like it has for us in the real world. For instance, the math doesn’t check out when it comes to Sally’s now-grown daughters Kylie and Antonia (recast with Joey King and Maisie Williams respectively). They should both be close to 40 by now, but the new actresses are in their late 20s.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter since all the characters have apparently been in a state of suspended animation the whole time. None of them have grown or changed very much. After about 30 minutes, the main story finally kicks in: when the dark origins of the family curse are revealed, Sally, Gillian and Kylie must travel to England and enlist the help of a dreamy, mysterious professor (Lee Pace) to finally put a stop to it. (Are we sure this time?)
Practical Magic 2 swaps out original director Griffin Dunne for Susanne Bier, who has previously worked with both Bullock (Bird Box) and Kidman (The Perfect Couple and The Undoing). Those collaborations were all direct-to-streaming projects, which might help explain why this 130-minute(!) sequel feels less like a movie and more like three episodes of a Netflix show you binge while doing laundry. Dunne wasn’t exactly Stanley Kubrick, but at least the original looked cinematic.
Aside from the enduring camaraderie among Bullock, Kidman (so refreshing to see her be funny again!), Weist and Channing, as well as charismatic smoldering from Pace (the underrated actor always gets exactly what kind of movie he’s in), not much else works. The pacing is sluggish; the mythology is jumbled and confusing; and intelligent characters are often forced to be stupid to keep the plot’s wheels spinning.
Perhaps most annoying of all, the movie’s final half-hour is actually pretty good – but man is it a slog to get there. After an overlong, turbulence-heavy flight, at least they manage to stick the landing.
Practical Magic 2 is rated PG-13 for some violent content, suggestive material and brief strong language. Now playing in theaters.
Grade: C-
Reach out to Josh Sewell at joshsewell81@gmail.com or on BlueSky @joshsewell.bsky.social
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