REVIEW: 'Practical Magic 2' is a cheap trick
While 1998’s Practical Magic was far from a blockbuster, the cult following it developed in subsequent years quickly elevated it to “overlooked classic” status. Based on the literary series of the same name by author Alice Hoffman, the film starred Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gilly Owens, sisters from a small New England town who also happen to be witches. 28 years later, with 90s nostalgia in full swing, and Bullock and Kidman still at the top of their respective games, a return to their collab seemed like a good idea.
The story returns us to the Owens’ hometown, where Sally and Gilly have settled into their roles as the community’s open secret; despite the previous film’s ending, the populace somehow still looks at them as oddities, albeit useful ones to turn to for a magical assist. The transactional set-up is completely unknown to Sally’s daughters, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams), whose memories were erased following the death of their stepfather, Gary. With Gary’s passing blamed on the same family curse that took the girls’ biological father, Sally intends to shield her daughters as much as she can. But when Kylie’s longtime boyfriend falls victim to the curse, she, Sally, and Gilly will travel to their ancestral land in hopes of freeing the Owens family from black magic once and for all.
The original Practical Magic is a great comfort film, relying as much on its quirky premise as it does the chemistry between Bullock and Kidman. While the plot centered on supernatural forces and the nature of love, it never overshadowed the sisterly bond of its lead characters.
Aided and abetted by their equally magical aunts, Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest), the Owens clan was a group one could easily imagine hanging out with for a good time. The magic was understated, their midnight margarita session iconic, and the film left the door open for further adventures, while not necessarily demanding a follow up.
Which brings us to Practical Magic 2.
For anyone hoping for a Top Gun Maverick- or Ghostbusters: Afterlife- level reunion with old friends, we offer our sincere condolences, as Practical Magic 2 has none of the charm, wit, or creativity of its predecessor. Given that Bullock and Kidman are listed as producers here, the degree to which they’re to blame is arguable; in any case, whatever magic they cooked up 28 years ago is nowhere to be found in the sequel.
This is a sequel in much the same way that And Just Like That is a sequel to Sex and the City, in that it undoes nearly everything from the characters’ previous endings to put them back in situations recognizable from when we first met them. It’s a regression in the most cynical way, seemingly borne of the assumption that audiences wouldn’t care for these characters if they weren’t acting exactly the same as they were thirty years ago.
Bullock and Kidman’s aesthetic augmentations notwithstanding, it’s painfully obvious that time has passed, and recasting Kylie and Antonia with inappropriately young actors to camouflage that fact just adds insult to injury. Now, this could have all been avoided by simply setting the film in 2008 to account for the kids’ ages (but I’m not being paid to do the writers’ jobs for them).
This isn’t to say that an entertaining story couldn’t have been told, of course; but where the aforementioned Top Gun Maverick centered on its hero’s refusal to grow up, Practical Magic 2 is in outright denial about its actors’ ages, while actively defecating on everything that made the first film good in the first place. Take, for instance, the lifting of the curse that led to Part 1’s happy ending, or Sally’s realization that she can’t deny her heritage any more than she can deny her children’s—all of that is thrown out in the first five minutes just so we can backslide to Bullock being quirky, Kidman being sassy, and the kids being clueless about their powers for the first third of the movie. AGAIN.
Worst of all, the relationship between the lead sisters is reduced to sitcom-level gags about how uptight Sally is and how horny Gilly is, as they lug the latter’s (clearly empty) luggage from one end of England to the other. At the same time, anything potentially interesting about Kylie and Antonia is largely left to the imagination, other than to say that they take their being witches surprisingly well.
Taking over as Kylie from Evan Rachel Wood, Joey King is serviceable as she seeks a way to save her beloved, having been presented with the solution (a hitherto unknown cursed book) in the absolute laziest way possible. Even if we accept that Aunts Frances and Jet knew about this thing for years, it beggars belief that they would keep such knowledge a secret from Sally and Gilly, especially after the hell they went through in the first film. But, seeing as Sally probably took parenting lessons from them, who knows how many secrets the Owens women keep from each on the regular?
Lee Pace appears in a thankless role as Ian, a magical expert that helps Sally and Gilly in their quest, though this amounts to little more than reminding us how much better Aidan Quinn was as Bullock’s previous love interest. While Sally and Ian flirt over minced pie and custard, Kylie uncovers yet another family secret in the form of Thomas, a local groundskeeper possessed with all the aura (and depth) of a Scooby-Doo villain. By the time Practical Magic 2 ends with all the gravitas of, well, Scooby Doo, you’ll find yourself wondering what the point of any of it was.
Given Hollywood’s increasingly risk-averse mindset in the streaming age, it’s hardly surprising that every vaguely nostalgic property would be up for the legacy sequel treatment. But for every reboot that justifies its existence, titles like The Matrix Resurrections, Home Sweet Home Alone, and yes, this film, exist to remind us that some things are better off left in the past.
Sorry, Practical Magic 2. You’re cursed.
