# Practical Magic (1998)

### reviewed by
Allan Woodward

    Practical Magic
    A Review by Allan Woodward
    affableal@erols.com

It's difficult to adequately review a film like Practical Magic, an adaptation of author Alice Hoffman's bestselling novel. Not because of its excesses of brilliance or lack thereof, but because it's so many things at once, both good and bad, that it's almost impossible to give justice to the film without separating each portion of it into distinct areas of critique.

Billed as a romantic comedy, or perhaps a late-'90s version of The Witches of Eastwick, this film is neither. While it has elements of romantic comedy, Practical Magic, which stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sisters who are also real witches, is also fairly equal parts drama, tearjerker and horror film. It begins with a near-hanging and a voice-over which provides the set-up for what follows: the Owens clan of women (witches all) are cursed never to love. Ever. The men they love will always die.

Sandra Bullock is the undisputed star of this picture and it's nice to see a return to the sort of work she did before she became America's sweetheart in movies like While You Were Sleeping. Her character, Sally Owens, is the reluctant one in a close-knit family unit of witches which includes Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest (in great supporting roles - you know these women from the weird parts of your own family tree), yearning for a normal life with a husband and a family. She is more closed than cute, more wounded than spunky. When the seemingly inevitable tragedy strikes, she plays it well. As the film progresses, she brings weight to her role and sometimes real emotion, even when events turn increasingly disjointed.

And they do become pretty strange. Nicole Kidman is the wild-one sister, passing from man to man in order to avoid the curse of never having love by never seeking love. As usual, Kidman does a pro's job sinking into the character, but it's disappointing that she didn't get a chance to take on the stronger role of Sally, since she more than has the skills to play women who reach down inside themselves to find an iron will when the need arises. Just watch Dead Calm to see what I mean.

Anyway, Kidman gets mixed up with a hard-drinking Romanian Louis L'Amour fan that she both desires and fears. It's here that Practical Magic detours into a fairly harrowing depiction of abuse and, ultimately, murder. What spins out from there is a bizarre, unbalanced mix of The Exorcist, Jack the Bear and, lastly, Sleepless in Seattle (in the form of Aidan Quinn, who's becoming better-looking and a better actor as he ages).

Ultimately there are too many threads to deal with adequately. The aforementioned Aidan Quinn is a policeman from Arizona, who may also be The One for Sally, investigating the Romanian cowboy, an evil spirit threatens to tear the family apart and maybe kill Gillian and, if that's not enough, Sally has a hard time with her relationship with her two daughters. All of this, jostling for screen time. Sometimes the transitions aren't pretty.

Despite all of its problems, Practical Magic isn't bad. Director Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love) delivers a visually lush and solidly-managed piece of work. His cast is excellent and they work each scene with verve. Alice Hoffman, who also wrote the first draft of the script, brings across her theme of women's empowerment through blood- and symbolic-sisterhood. However, this same script is unable to maintain a consistent mood due to the proliferation of subplots.

See the film if you like. It's a nice way to spend a couple hours. And the worst that can be said of Practical Magic is that it's a noble failure for having tried to do too much.

        Grade: C

Just Rent It This Week: The Replacement Killers, Starring Chow Yun-Fat and Mira Sorvino. Grade: A.

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