PRACTICAL MAGIC (Warner Bros.) Starring: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing, Aidan Quinn, Goran Visjnic. Screenplay: Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldsman and Adam Brooks, based on the novel by Alice Hoffman. Producer: Denise DiNovi. Director: Griffin Dunne. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult themes, violence) Running Time: 104 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
PRACTICAL MAGIC cast a sort of spell over me, but I don't think it's the kind a film-maker might have intended. Rather than enchantment, it produced a Spell of Befuddlement. It's not so much a movie as it is a big bubbling cauldron of confusion into which a mess of ingredients have been tossed. Among the items included in this concoction:
1) A cup of THELMA & LOUISE. The story focuses on a pair of sisters (genetic, not just philosophical) named Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) Owens, who come from a long line of witchcraft practitioners including the maiden aunts (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest) who raised them. Part of that legacy involves a curse on the men in their lives, leading Sally into a tragic longing for true love and Gillian to a pursuit of loveless affairs. The whispers of THELMA & LOUISE come when the two sisters kill an abusive lout (Goran Visnjic) while his is in the process of assaulting Gillian. The women then try to hide from the repercussions of their deed, even as good-hearted cop Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn) tries to help them. It's an obvious hook for a female empowerment fable, one that plays female viewers for every whoop and cheer it can wrest out of them, but it doesn't quite mix with other ingredients like...
2) A dash of THE FRIGHTENERS. You see, Sally and Gillian don't just kill the abusive lout once. They kill him accidentally, cast a spell to bring him back to life, then kill him a gain when the zombie-fied lout is even more loutish than before. The catch is that his restless soul is still hanging about the sisters' picturesque New England home, appearing occasionally to inhabit Gillian's body or attempt to hear out Gary's heart. Though the scenes of supernatural nastiness are sporadic, they're nonetheless jarring. As the Owens women attempt a climactic exorcism of sorts -- joined by a bunch of townswomen who had until that point loathed the sisters, but decided to help out because, darn it, that's just what women do for one another -- you may wonder who took your saucy romantic comedy and dipped it in THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK. That's assuming you still care by that point, given...
3) A smidgen of HOPE FLOATS. Sandra Bullock now appears to be in her pensive, sorrowful single mother phase, and it doesn't suit her. In the midst of the magical hijinks surrounding her, Bullock plays her mourning far too straight, as though the film were a deeply observational relationsihp drama. She should have taken a hint from her co-stars, all of whom appear to be having a heck of a lot more fun. Kidman is flashy, fiery and sexy as the naughty sister, playing town tramp with plenty of gusto; Channing and Wiest are both matronly and devilish as the eccentric aunts. Bullock, meanwhile, puts on her horn-rims from LOVE POTION NO. 9 and frumps about when she should be providing the stable, sympathetic figure the story needs. And it could have been a strange delight thanks to...
4) The eye of Griffin Dunne. Actor-turned-director Dunne has a unique, dark comic sensibility behind the camera, evidenced by his ability to turn a tale of two obsessive stalkers (ADDICTED TO LOVE) into an entertaining romantic comedy. Here he offers a few of his cock-eyed touches, including a midnight tequila party and Gillian's surreal time-lapsed drive home, but there's no focus to the story. It's a comedy that gets too serious, a crowd-pleaser that turns too bizarre, and a romantic love story that suddenly turns into a sisterly love story. It's certainly never a bore, not with Kidman throwing off sparks and so many shifts in tone. It also never comes together as anything more than the sum of its disparate parts. I'm not sure what the recipe for PRACTICAL MAGIC was supposed to create, but it adds up to a casserole of clashing flavors, a supernatural stew with the power to create a fog of ambivalence.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 witchy poohs: 5.
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