Halloween Horrorfest: Practical Magic

I want to begin this review with a preface by stating I love the movie Practical Magic. It's got it's problems, sure, but it has a lot of charm to it as well and it's the central relationship between the two sisters at the core of the film the wins me over every time. It's a movie that continually wants to identify as a fun romantic comedy, but there is more than a little darkness to it that fights against that every step of the way. But now, 20 years since it was released (!), I figure it's a good time for a revisit.

Sally Owens (played by Sandra Bullock) and her sister Gillian (played by Nicole Kidman) are the latest generation in a family of witches dating back to the colonial times, centered on a small island in Massachusetts. Due to a pledge made by a long ago descendant never to love again when her true love left her to be banished to that same island, due to her own bitterness it became a curse to the entire family that any Owens woman that truly falls in love, their husband is ultimately doomed. This is what led to Sally and Gillian to wind up being raised by their two aunts, Jet (played by Dianne Wiest) and Frances (played by Stockard Channing). Jet and Frances having accepted being the outcasts on the island and take pride in their unique lives while Sally resists her magical heritage, just wanting to be happy and winds up marrying and settling down with a local guy and Gillian gets a bad case of wanderlust and hits the road, never looking back. Tragedy strikes for Sally, which sends her and her two young daughters back to Aunt Jet and Frances. Things take a dire turn when Gillian calls Sally for help, stuck in a relationship with a very dangerous man named Jimmy Angelov (played by Goran Visnjic). When Jimmy catches up to them, Sally tricks him into ingesting some tequila laced with belladonna, except she used too much and winds up accidentally killing him. Panicking, they take him back to the Aunts' house and use a spell to try and resurrect him, which only complicates matters with the violent ghost of Jimmy now haunting Sally and Gillian. Things only get more complicated when a cop, Gary Hallett, (played by Aiden Quinn) shows up on their doorstep looking for Jimmy. 

The film was directed by Griffin Dunne from a script credited to Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldsman, and Adam Brooks, based on the novel by Alice Hoffman. The fact that there are three different writers on the film may account for some of the sharp tonal shifts this film has in it. From an opening recounting the Owens family history, to the two young sisters essentially being orphaned to light romantic comedy as the respective sisters fall in love to dark tragedy when the curse claims Sally's husband to thriller when Sally goes to rescue Gillian from the abusive Jimmy to dark comedy to genuinely creepy ghost/possession horror and then back to romantic comedy, including a moment early in the film scored to Faith Hill's "This Kiss" that sticks out even more like a sore thumb now than it did 20 years ago. Tonally, this movie is all over the place. I know, it sounds like I hate this movie but yet somehow I don't. Hidden within all of this is a really great story about the bond between two sisters who through everything are always there for one another. That is what makes the movie work for me. That and the two Aunts. I love Frances and Jet, despite the dubious ethics of them selling love spells for money. And the house, I was crushed when I found out it was just a set. The production design in this movie is fantastic. 

The film does assemble a fantastic cast for the film. Sandra Bullock leads the group as Sally Owens, the more pragmatic member of the family. She shuns most the magic her family is known for and runs a botanicals shop in town. She handles the various stages her character goes through quite well and adds a certain charm to the film as well. Nicole Kidman lets loose with the wilder Gillian, who adds a certain fly by the seat of her pants, carefree sensibility to her character, traveling the country and going through men faster than anyone can keep track ("Someday she'll find a guy that goes through her," cracks Aunt Frances at one point early in the film in an amusing bit of foreshadowing). Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest were clearly having a blast playing the two aunts, delighting in gossiping and meddling in people's lives when they weren't having an impromptu round of Midnight Margaritas. But they also have some of the best lines in the film, including the gem "When are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!" Aidan Quinn does well with his every man charm thrust into some very extraordinary circumstances. He has a challenge with this movie being the main romantic lead who doesn't turn up until the movie is more than half over, but he has some good chemistry with Sandra Bullock and they manage to pull it off well enough. 

Practical Magic is the type of movie that is somehow greater than the sum of it's parts. It has a charm to it that is irresistible to me, even as the movie jumps erratically in tone. It has a little bit of everything to it and makes for not too heavy Halloween viewing. The critics certainly were not kind to it when it was released back in 1998, but over time it has gained a bit of a cult following. At least I know I'm not alone in my love for this crazy little movie.