Practical Magic
Article by David Loring
(1998)
If you’ve never seen Practical Magic, the 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes might put you off - but you’d be wiser to look slightly to the right and notice the 73% audience score, a far more accurate appraisal of its status as a crowd-pleasing gem of a movie.
Long before Anna and Elsa taught us the power of sisterly love and letting things go, we had the Owens sisters - Sally and Gillian (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, respectively), laying down the bonds of sisterhood as the foundation on which the rest of the movie is built.
Both women come from a lineage of witches, all of them cursed by an ancestor to watch the men they fall in love with suffer grim fates and untimely demises. Sally, desperate for a life of normalcy resists falling in love for as long as she can; Gillian, determined to live a life of excitement seems to fall in “love” with every man she meets along the way, no matter how ephemeral it may be.
Under the watchful eyes of their aunts (and in Sally’s case, a little meddling on their part), both women encounter two very different men - for Sally, a loving husband and father to their two girls who sadly meets the same fate as so many Owens-loving men before him, and for Gillian, the “Dracula cowboy” Jimmy Angelov (Goran Visnjic), an utter bastard of the highest order whose obsession with Gilly quickly reveals itself as domineering and abusive.
And the problem with a guy like Jimmy is that you can’t just kill him once! While rescuing Gillian from his clutches, the two sisters accidentally kill him in self defence - and then again after a failed resurrection spell brings him back as something even darker than he was alive. They find themselves contending not only with the spirit of Jimmy haunting them, but the arrival of a handsome detective investigating his disappearance, who just so happens to match every descriptor of Sally’s impossibly-perfect man-of-her-dreams...
As spooky Halloween fare goes, Practical Magic is definitely on the lighter side of things - it’s far more “bobbing for apples” than it is “white-knuckle scares”. The movie is excellent escapism set in a beautiful Victorian home in a picture-perfect postcard town soaked in autumnal New England vibes, far more concerned with showcasing the chemistry between the two leads than it is with fitting its tales of witchcraft alongside any of the usual horror-tropes associated with them, even when it dips into the darker elements of its story with Jimmy’s malevolence.
It’s a light-hearted romp and feel good story that’s basically the cinematic equivalent of cosying up on the couch under a comfy blanket. This is a movie that prominently features ‘This Kiss’ by Faith Hill on the soundtrack and plays it completely earnestly! Practical Magic’s mode of witchcraft is very much about feminine solidarity than it is about cackling hags (though for those seeking witches with an edge, might we suggest The Craft or Suspiria, both playing at Rewind in October?).
For those who just want an entertaining way to while away the hours, there’s a lot on offer:
Sandra Bullock is effortlessly likeable as Sally (really, it’s peak Bullock), Nicole Kidman makes Gillian a blithe spirit with just the right amount of sadness and desperation to her that she isn’t grating, Goran Visnjic looks like he’s having a blast oozing out the perfect mix of sleaze and menace, and Aidan Quinn does great work to make a Mr. Perfect character genuinely appealing when he could have so easily been dull and flat.
Other highlights include a pre-fame Evan Rachel Wood as one of Sally’s daughters, reliable work from Character Actress Margo Martindale, and the absolute standouts of the movie, Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest as Sally and Gillians cool-old-aunts who absolutely nail the mix of chaotic fun and wise matriarchs in equal measure.
As they so often are with any movie aimed primarily at an audience of women, critics were quick to dismiss the movie on its first release. Reviews took it to task for its fluffy nature and cutesiness (heaven forbid a movie about the bond between two magical sisters dares to be fun and enjoyable!) as well as the tonal shifts across its various story beats - so what type of movie is Practical Magic? Is it a drama about two sisters finding love amidst a family curse? A romantic comedy involving witches? A story about a woman being haunted by the ghost of her abusive ex?
The answer to that question is simply “yes”!
Practical Magic is playing at Rewind on Friday, October 29 at 6pm