Practical Magic
As the belated sequel arrives next month, we re-visit the 1998 romantic fantasy as it is re-issued in cinemas this weekend.
Mumbo jumbo: Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock
Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Sally and Gillian Owens are two gorgeous, loving sisters who have acquired their mother’s talent for white witchcraft. They have also inherited the family curse which rather cruelly disposes of any man they should fall in love with. Not surprisingly, then, the sisters decide to turn their back on sorcery in favour of romance…
The tragedy of this sappy, misguided adaptation of Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel is that the subject was so rife with golden opportunities. Yet the screenplay is so unfocussed and the playing so woolly and broad, that there’s nothing here to hold the interest. Mses Bullock and Kidman do their damndest to be bewitching, but they’re cursed with wretched material. You’ll find more magic in a Budweiser commercial.
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing, Aidan Quinn, Goran Visnjic, Evan Rachel Wood, Alexandra Astrip, Mark Feuerstein, Caprice Benedetti, Camilla Belle, Margo Martindale, Chloe Webb, Martha Gehman, Lucinda Jenney, Mary Gros, Herta Ware, Ellen Geer.
Dir Griffin Dunne, Pro Denise Di Novi, Co-Pro Robin Swicord, Screenplay Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldsman and Adam Brooks, from the novel by Alice Hoffman, Ph Andrew Dunn, Pro Des Robin Standefer, Ed Elizabeth Kling, Music Alan Silvestri, Costumes Judianna Makovsky, Dialect coach Elizabeth Himelstein and Julie Adams.
Fortis Films/Di Novi Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures-Warner Bros.
104 mins. USA. 1998. Original UK Rel: 22 January 1998. New UK Rel: 7 August 2026. Cert. 12A.
