PRACTICAL MAGIC Cast: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing, Aidan Quinn, Goran Visnjic Director: Griffin Dunne Screenplay: Robin Swicord and Akiva Goldsman and Adam Brooks based on the novel by Alice Hoffman Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): One star
Many years ago people believed that witchcraft was not something to poke fun at; witches symbolized evil in its most satanic and scariest form. But nowadays, witches are funky and cool. Compare the witchcraft in Macbeth or The Crucible to that of Bewitched or Sabrina: The Teenage Witch, and you'll notice an astonishing difference. Vile old women have now been replaced by the likes of Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, and the only thing scary about them is their choice of films. Attractive young women may give their characters energy and liveliness, but witchery has lost its meaning and relevance in cinema. In the case of Practical Magic, it doesn't represent evil; it represents very bad filmmaking.
For centuries, the Owens family of witches has suffered from a disturbing curse: any man they fall in love with soon ends up dead. Sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) deal with this problem in different ways. Sally chooses to ignore her family's past and marries a man she is deeply in love with, whilst Gillian pursues a life of loveless affairs. Things get a little tricky when the sisters kill Gillian's boyfriend, in self-defense. They attempt to cover up the murder, whilst likeable cop Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn) investigates who done it.
Any chance to pace Practical Magic in a sensible way has been conveniently ignored. The story moves from romance, to sanitized horror, to a murder mystery, then back to romance, then back to sanitized horror, and then to something even more ridiculous (let's just say a group of ordinary women become part of an absurd ritual, and leave it at that). The three screenwriters who adapted the film from the novel by Alice Hoffman have shown no talent for unraveling any hint of a coherent story. Practical Magic is never evenly faintly believable, and only occasionally enjoyable. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman give a sexy and fun feeling to their roles, but their performances are simplistic and one-dimensional.
The film never succeeds in finding stable ground, but comes reasonably close to it when Aidan Quinn arrives on the screen. Quinn's previous film was The Assignment, in which he boldly portrayed two different characters, and was brilliant throughout. Here, he looks out of place and ignorant of the idiocy surrounding him, but at least provides the reason why Practical Magic is (sometimes) tolerable.
Few films insult my intelligence and ever fewer inspire me to walk out early, but Practical Magic did both those things. Director Griffin Dunne seems to have no idea of how to make a solid, respectable product, largely because of the film's clumsy screenplay. Condescending, embarrassing and immature, Practical Magic is practically pathetic.
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