Practical Magic

Plot synopsis:
Maria Owens, a young witch, is exiled to Maria's Island in Massachusetts with her unborn child for escaping her execution. When her lover does not come to rescue her, she desperately casts a spell upon herself to stop falling in love due to heartbreak, only to die soon after. The spell becomes a curse for several generations. 11-year-old twin sisters, Gillian and Sally Owens, two descendants of the Owens family, are taken in by their aunts Frances and Jet after the death of their parents. Sally is the more gifted of the two while Gillian's talents are more in charm and persuasion, and have been subject to ridicule during their youth. After witnessing their aunts cast a spell on a man for a woman who seems obsessed with having his love, Gillian decides to fall in love and Sally casts a true love spell to protect herself.
The sisters cast an oath to each other using blood from both of their hands and Gillian leaves for Los Angeles. Sally meets and marries Michael, a local apple salesman. They have two young daughters, Kylie and Antonia. One morning, after several blissful years of marriage, Sally hears the "death-watch beetle" and realizes that it is coming for her husband. Despite Sally tearing up the floor in an effort to find and kill the beetle, Michael is killed by a truck during his early morning routine of taking apples to the local farmers market. Sally and her daughters return to the Owens home to live with the aunts and realize that the aunts cast a spell so she could fall in love. Sally decides that she and her daughters will not perform magic. While Gillian begins a relationship with Jimmy Angelov in Orlando, Sally is devastated by her husband's death. Gillian feels that Sally needs her and drugs Jimmy to return to Massachusetts.
Gillian returns to Sally after Jimmy becomes abusive, but the sisters are kidnapped. Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila, inadvertently killing him. The sisters resurrect him using the forbidden spell from their aunts' book of spells, but Jimmy attempts to kill Gillian after being revived. Sally kills him again, and the sisters bury his remains in their home's garden. State investigator Gary Hallett arrives from Tucson, Arizona in search of Jimmy, who is also a serial killer. As Gary begins to suspect Sally, Gillian, Kylie and Antonia create a potion to banish Gary; however, the girls realize he is the one described in Sally's true love spell, and remove the potion. Later, Sally has Gary record her testimony and sees the letter she had once written Gillian, and realizes he must have read it more times than he had let on. Unable to deny their feelings for each other, they kiss and Sally realizes that he was there because of the spell she cast years earlier.
Sally discovers that Jimmy's spirit has possessed Gillian's body and Gary sees Jimmy's spirit emerge. Jimmy attempts to possess Gary, only to be hurt by his silver star-shaped badge and is temporarily exiled. Later, Sally tells Gary that he is there because of her spell and the feelings they have for each other are not real. Gary replies that curses are only true if one believes in them and reveals that he also wished for her, before returning to Tucson.
Jimmy possesses Gillian again and attempts to kill Sally before Frances and Jet return. Sally, realizing she must embrace magic to save her sister, asks the aid of the townswomen and they form a coven to exorcise Jimmy's spirit. Sally makes them stop when she sees that the effort might kill Gillian. Getting inside the circle, Sally and the townswomen reenact her oath with Gillian. They are able to break the Owens curse, exorcising Jimmy's spirit and allowing the coven to exile him permanently. Sally receives a letter from Gary telling her that she and her sister are cleared of any suspicion of wrongdoing in Jimmy's case and Gary returns to Massachusetts to be with Sally. The Owens women celebrate All Hallow's Eve dressed up in witch costumes, and are embraced and welcomed by the townsfolk.

Tags: comedy, paranormal, whimsical, cult, flashback, psychedelic, melodrama, tragedy, romantic

Review:
I just loved the sets, the costumes, the women and their relationships, the real magic in the film, the special effects, the child actresses.
Bullock, Kidman, Channing, and Wiest are beautiful, charming and wonderful to watch in this flick, and I love watching the four of them over and over again..
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman give star-powered performances- both deliver the goods here and you'll enjoy it whether you're fans of them or if you're not.
They're simply charming and as much as people may want to dislike Kidman for being Ms. Cruise, she again proves she's a star in her own right.Forget the critics and the Be-faithful-to-the-book drones, this is a good movie- hip, edgy and sometimes spooky.
If this was a movie made by two unknown actresses, it would be a "gem" critics would recommend to audiences, but for some reason with Bullock and Kidman, it gets reviewed on a different scale and ends up short for people.
Forget all that- it's great entertainment with yes, two pretty big stars- but they can't help that so get over it and enjoy the movie for what it is- a real "gem.".
Nicole Kidman had never been one of my favorite actress either, but I loved her in this movie (as I did Sandra Bullock).
They are wonderful.I don't see this movie as being about magic or witchcraft, the romance between Sally and Gary Hallet or even Jimmy Angelov chasing Gillian (which is a huge catalyst - but not really any more than that).
For me, this movie is really about the relationships between sisters and women (the Aunts Franny and Jet, Kylie and Antonia, the Owens' women and the townswomen and of course, between Sally and Gillian - both young and adult).All of the actresses had a great chemistry, but I couldn't believe how well matched Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman were.
I felt that their bond was very believable and I loved watching their relationship to each other (and themselves) grow and mature as they went from being children to adults.I certainly don't think that this film will appeal to everybody, and I can see why so many people "don't get it", but if you watch it more for the relationships between the women and not so much for the romance angle or the magic I think that you will really enjoy this movie.
A couple of months before Practical Magic came out in theaters, I read the novel it was based on by Alice Hoffman, and loved it.
So when I went to see 'Practical Magic' the movie, I didn't know what to expect, since most movie adaptions from books are very different and disappointing.
'Practical Magic' is not your average romantic comedy or your average witch movie.
Nicole Kidman, is brilliant--very wild-child, but not so trampy that you hate her--and probably the most interesting character ( and the best performance) in the whole movie.
So, if you're looking for a well-acted, well-written, unique film, I definitely recommend 'Practical Magic'.
and also that I am male (drawing attention to this fact since most of my male friends would not be caught DEAD in a male-bashing, chick flick dark comedy that reeks in the celebration of womankind!)Sondra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are devilishly sexy as the spell-casting sisters doomed to be single for the rest of their natural life...
Aidan Quinn rounds out the superb cast as a detective determined to find out the truth behind the disappearance of a wanted killer.With a terrific soundtrack and an equally impressive musical score, Practical Magic will surprise and delight many a filmgoer who delves into the fantasy and fun of being bewitched!.
The movie fails to fully develop the town's overt fear of witches (missing only slightly), the full foreboding of "something wicked this way comes" with Jimmy (although the script lets them get away with it), and the magical love bond between Sally and Gary.
A few small changes, such as more supportive background music, would have made these points support and counterpoint the lighter parts of the flick.Bullock and Kidman are very good as the central characters, very believable as different-but-bonded sisters.
That is, can the story dump the cliches with more confidence and truly explore real-life issues of women such as abuse --- instead of using it as a stepping-stone for sexy actresses to get wicked and 'bewitched'?!) The stock characters of the female townies, always adversary to the sister-witches, are truly embarrassing.The film remains superficial precisely because it touches on, rather than develops, very complex phenomena like fear of witches (read: powerful women), competition among women, abusive relationships, women's cinderella dreams, fitting in, female ambitions (examplary housewife or wild slut - your pick), etc etc etc!!!!
Instead these issues are *exploited* for a *greatly* uneven film: a hodge-podge of romance, black/family comedy-drama, suspense, crime story, science fiction...We CAN still have a fun and exciting movie with a story that focuses on, respects, and gives its all to one or two of these topics without using them for their surface/shock values (really!)It's highly possible that the film started out with a solid good script based on the book and gets tampered with by the studio for maximum appeal later on.
The flying witches at the end (oh GAWD!) The strange cut from the sexual passions of the main romance to a weird-and-weak confrontation with the supernatural undead boyfriend (as if the effects people are itching to drop a load of Hollywood eye candy - even at expense of awkward development!) And the overall stereotypical typecasting of women.The only enjoyable elements left of the film are the two female leads.
It's almost worth watching this movie simply because if you've been moaning about THE PHANTOM MENACE or THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT or whatever, you'll realise they are better than CITIZEN KANE compared to the utter garbage that is PRACTICAL MAGIC..
This truly has got to be one of the *worst* movies I've ever seen, and I definitely would have expected more from Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock.
The editing was terrible, the story was chaotic and uneven, the romance had zero chemistry (I couldn't believe the characters even LIKED each other...let alone loved each other), the witchcraft was stupid and disgusting (I almost walked out after the bird scene)...and worst of all it was boring.
As would be expected of A-list headliners, both Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are very capable in their starring roles and they are backed by supporting players who have since increased their profile like Goran Visjnic (The Deep End).
Still it's a total waste of 2 hours and the 3 bucks rental money.I usually like Sandra Bullock movies a lot...
I can't believe they couldn't find some decent people to act opposite Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.Do yourself a favor and stay far far away from this movie..
I normally even like Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman but now their performances were the same level as the movie.
The basic idea is that Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play witches, and Sandra can't have a normal romance with a human because she is a witch.We learn this early on and from this point on the film ambles through plot lines and ideas, each with about fifteen minutes till it moves onto the next idea which last for another 15 minutes.
I wasn't expecting to like the Alice Hoffman novel this movie is based on, but it's a wonderful work which lives up to its title; it's about magic, but less about the "bubble, bubble, toil and trouble kind"(though there is some of that) than the magic that is in everyday life, and everything is grounded in some kind of reality.
Instead, director Griffin Dunne and writers Adam Brooks, Akiva Goldsman, and Robin Swicord(though Goldsman has by far the worst track record, so I'd like to believe he's the most responsible) substitute your standard witches story, and while they keep some of the plot of the novel, it makes no sense when thrown in with this rubbish.
And while Bullock and Kidman deserve credit for trying to mine something out of this(Bullock is the most successful here), Dianne Wiest is lost, Stockard Channing is uncharacteristically awful(she must have had some reason to channel Bette Davis, but damned if I know it), and Aidan Quinn looks like he'd rather be somewhere else(who could blame him?).
This, to me, is sloppy film-making when nothing better could have been put in, filler, to make the movie longer.Nicole Kidman surprised me with her performance, but one character a film does not make..
Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) have been told by their aunts (Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest) early on about the family curse.
Bullock and Kidman are great actors who has good chemistry together as sisters.
Ever since it came out, Practical Magic has been my favorite movie, and I was only like 8 at that time.
Certainly a highlight in Nicole Kidmans career, as well as in Sandra bullocks.It appeals to a wide audience because it relates to so many people, in so many ways.I have only good things to say about this movie.
Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock are two of the greatest actresses around today (see Kidman in "The Hours" for proof) and in this film they are just having fun.
It was especially aggravating that the love interest for the Nicole Kidman character (not the zombie; it came after that part) was eliminated from the movie, and this was by far the more engaging of the romances in the novel.
Well, I haven't read the book, which seems to be better, but I liked the movie.
I even liked Nicole Kidman in this movie, which says a great deal because normally I can't stand her.
Bullock plays Bullock, Channing does a good job as one of the aunts, and Kidman and Wiest are just wasting their time mostly.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman were both very well and gave the two witches, the main characters of the film, tremendous strength and personality.
then I think you can have a fun time watching "Practical Magic".
The answer is that the leading ladies, not just Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman but also their crazy aunts played by Stockard Channing and Diane Wiest, act their roles with playful humor and endearing wit.
"Practical Magic" doesn't rely on a silly story for its laughs but instead lets the acting pave the way for levity.Roger Ebert gave this movie a mostly negative review, saying "the movie doesn't seem sure what tone to adopt, veering uncertainly from horror to laughs to romance." But I think Ebert failed to see that the film's charm is the fact that the characters can indulge in laughs and romance *despite* the horror.Ebert also criticized: "'Practical Magic' is too scary for children and too childish for adults.
Practical Magic — A soft movie about witches and woman power.
Practical Magic is very much a woman's movie which is very different from a chick flick that essentially tries to capture the attention of female viewers by playing on their desires.
Although it's quite simple in its approach and it doesn't really contain much depth, "Practical Magic" is entertaining as a lighthearted fantasy-comedy.Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are Sally and Gillian Owens, two beautiful orphan sisters who were raised by their eccentric aunts, who happen to practice witchcraft.Now all grown up, the sisters finally part ways and the audience gets a glimpse at both of their interesting lives.
Everything seems perfect until a dark series of events brings the Owens sisters back together...When a malevolent force threatens to kill Gillian and begins terrorizing Sally and her children, the sisters have to dig up their magical backgrounds and dabble with dangerous spells and curses.The movie is never too serious and Sandra and Nicole shine in their roles, each giving a touching and comedic performance.
I couldn't figure out if the movie was a love-story, a comedy or horror story but that was why it was so much fun because it was a bit of everything.
"Practical Magic" is among the best movies to come out this year.
Other than that,the movie presented Witchcraft in a fun light which I much appreciated.The characters showed some depth, but I got the feeling that there were some good scenes left on the cutting room floor to limit the time.
It deals more with the relationship between sisters Sally and Gillian (Bullock and Kidman) and how they deal with their magical powers than with the romance part of it.
Sandra Bullock is wonderful as the serious sister not willing to use her magic and wanting to live a "normal" life.
Sandra Bullock character was one she plays well, but one we've seen from her often before, most recently in "Hope Floats."  Nicole Kidman's portrayal of the wild child sister bears a remarkable resemblance to Meg Ryan's portrayal of Pamela in "The Doors.".
The film has a light humorous touch in the relationships between the two sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman), who have rarely looked better, and their two aunts, played by Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing.
Maybe this is a perfect rental movie, something that's been out for almost ten years, has lots of recognizable and appealing actresses and actors, requires very little thinking, is moderately scary in places, has girl issue-stuff for the girls, and Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman for the boys.It's strange, but I liked Practical Magic more than my wife.
There's something very appealing to the lizard at the back of my skull with Nicole Kidman in a mini-skirt.But Practical Magic gave me a chance to rediscover Sandra Bullock, an imperfectly beautiful woman who exudes desire and decency at the same time.
The first two minutes were great but then it just kept going from bad to worse and we couldn't figure out what kind of movie are we watching is it thriller, comedy, romantic or scene fiction.
Practical Magic -- the movie -- isn't even half as good as the disappointing novel.
The movie's not funny when it wants to be funny, and it's funny when it's supposed to be 'serious'.Practical Magic is a complete waste of time!
Sandra and Nicole gave one of their best performances to date, while Diane Wiest and Stockard Channing added dramatic moments and hilarious comedy!
This is just one of the inconsistencies of this film, and throughout I got the impression that Practical Magic doesn't think much of it's audience's intelligence.The plot revolves around two girls that are witches.
They grow up into Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman; the former being happily married to a man she loves, while the latter has found herself in all sorts of trouble with a nasty boyfriend played by Goran Visnijic.
This popular, mass audience romantic fantasy casts a bit of magic over the whole family comedy movie with dramatic elements.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman along with veteran actresses Stockard Channing and Diane Wiest with a strong supporting role from Goran Visnjic form a delightful, lighthearted romp in witchcraft.
Love all the stars in this movie nothing better than these actors playing their roles best casting.
Practical Magic is a 1998 comedy film starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock.
Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing gave good performances as the two aunts that take in Nicole and Sandra as children after both their mother and father pass away.
Really the only thing I enjoyed about Practical Magic was the characters played by some of my favorite actors and actresses.
Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock just didn't ring true in their roles as sisters.
This is so far My favorite movie of all time :) although its just 4 years older than me but the magic, the actresses, the story and everything makes me happy and enthusiast.
The acting of Sandra Bullock was amazing and the hair of Nickole Kidman was definitely the best in all of her movies (their clothes too) The story of Maria is good.
Any film with Sandra Bullock is going to be nice, and whilst I don't generally think Nicole Kidman is that great, I really like her in this film.
Great supporting cast with Diane Wiest, Stockard Channing, Aidan Quinn and Goran Visnjic, it's well acted, as a drama rather than a fantasy (which can often be cheesy) but this has a lot of tenderness, suspense and love; both romance and sisterly.
It's not a fabulous film as it is what it is, a fantasy chick-flick but it has a lot to endear it with good performances/and a nice story..
I enjoyed the excellent performances of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman - they did a very good job here, and they never forgot to be funny and even clumsy when necessary.
Bullock and Kidman are very good as the central characters, very believable as different-but-bonded sisters.
Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest indulge in some "Practical Magic," a 1998 film directed by Griffin Dunne.
Bullock and Kidman play sisters, Sally and Gillian, both of whom are witches.
I agree with the person who said Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman have never looked better.
I liked the suggestion that magic is a part of our every day lives, and I've certainly dreamed of a love that "even time will lie down and be still for." I couldn't ask for a better "chick" flick..
Ok, and this is happening why?" feeling, as the viewer is left with a few too many unanswered questions.Overall, though, an enjoyable film....and I love Sandra Bullock.
Unfortunately, like a few too many films that come out, Practical Magic seemed to fall short.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are the best parts of the film.
Well, as someone has already said,this movie will not be among the best in '99, but it certainly gave me what I paid for: a funny couple of hours watching Miss Bullock in an interesting role.