Practical Magic (1998)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A fabulous foursome of award winning actresses couldn't save this amoral view of the dark side of the gentle sex, minus the morality and right over wrong viewpoint of "The Witches" and "Hocus Pocus". Veterans Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest are the eccentric spell casting aunts who take in orphaned nieces and turn them to the light side of the dark side. Growing up to be Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, they end up in bad relationships thanks to an ancient curse where any man who marries into their family will die a tragic death. Of course, Bullock ends up with two daughters (obviously no sons allowed), and the pattern threatens to be repeated.Sweetly filmed, there is still nothing that hides the fact that this really is spiritually ugly. Even in the two films that I mentioned, as well as 'The Witches of Eastwick", there was no denying the fact that the witches actually were up to no good. Here the two older aunts are presented as fun- loving Auntie Mame types, and the two younger women are presented in such heroic aspects that it is difficult to see past the fact that they are involved in dark forces. A scene where Channing and Wiest meet with a client determined to make a man fall in love with her just gives the insinuation that a woman has to turn to the dark side in order to find love in her life, and that is a very disturbing precedent, especially in a film that has such a family air about it. One of the major issues with this "chick flick" is that it doesn't really do any service to the advancement of women and any reason to take stories like this seriously. Certainly, Bullock's ill-fated marriage to a really nice man is emotional, but the one dimensional lover that Kidman ends up is written with absolutely no redeeming values. Aidan Quinn, as a detective on the sister's trail, is believable with a variation of qualities, but his sudden transformation under a witches spell falls short of believable. The gathering of local women in the conclusion is very anti- male, and the very final scene proves that this was just an attempt to sugarcoat what the witchy women of this family was really all about. While I can enjoy films which tackle horrific, supernatural or macabre subject matters, I strongly believe that the movies have a strong obligation to present certain ideas in a moralistic manner. There is nothing moral about showing unnatural ways of controlling another human being, and certainly any kind of magical spell to control nature is wrong. I'm guilty of adoring Channing and Wiest too much to judge them, and the fact that I liked them so much in this was very disturbing to me. They ain't no "Rosemary's Baby" type coven, and certainly not getting the come-uppance of the three sisters from "Hocus Pocus" made this questionable as to the motives of the filmmakers. And when they say that there's no devil in their craft, the only word that I can think of in response is, "Bull!"

It's hard to put my finger on exactly what went wrong with this movie. Many critics said things like "it doesn't know what it wants to be" or "it is mixing genres". I don't really see anything wrong with mixing genres. It can make a film more original and less formulaic. It just seemed that most of the cast just lacked chemistry with one another. This is odd because these are very talented actors. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock just didn't ring true in their roles as sisters. Neither did Aiden Quinn or Goran Visnjic. The real chemistry was with the older sisters, the crazy aunts, played very well by Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest. In spite of some good stuff, it did not coalesce into a good movie.

As much as I hate to admit it, I really liked this film. A little on the subject matter, first. It was all pure hooey. That said, there were a few accuracies woven in their somewhere on the subject of Wicca, but alas, Hollywood seems stuck in the dark ages concerning the ancient philosophy. So it didn't dispel any of the time honored myths, it just riffed on them, but to often hilarious and often entertaining ways. Best of all, it made fun of witchcraft, rather than burned women at the stake for it, which it worked particularly well— not demonizing something is always a good thing. But especially surprising was the passionate tryst between Bullock and Quinn, which was so hot that it practically peeled the paint off my walls. Who knew that Plain Jane Bullock could actually conjure up some sexual magic of her own on screen? All in all, great fun and well told, all done tongue in cheek. Just go for the pure, dumb fun of it and you may just fall under its spell.

Bullock and Kidman are very good as the central characters, very believable as different-but-bonded sisters. Kidman is a little too flaky at times to be a fully credible witch, but this characterization runs well enough in context. Channing (whom I rarely enjoy) and Wiest are excellent in major supporting roles, outdone only by Webb and Wood (Sally's daughters) who show their abilities by *not* overacting their potentially cutesy roles. Instead, they do a great job in stating variations on their mother and Aunt Gilly.Overall, I think most aspects of direction and production could have used one more iteration of quality improvement. Still, the movie is quite enjoyable, and worth watching again some time.