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Practical Magic
1998 film by Griffin Dunne From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Practical Magic is a 1998 American romantic fantasy film based on the 1995 novel by Alice Hoffman. The film was directed by Griffin Dunne and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing and Aidan Quinn. Bullock and Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, descended from a long line of witches. Raised by their aunts after their parents' death from a family curse, the sisters were taught the uses of practical magic as they grew up. As adults, Sally and Gillian must use their magic to destroy the evil spirit of Gillian's abusive boyfriend before it kills them.
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Practical Magic was released on October 16, 1998, and grossed $68 million worldwide against a production budget of $75 million. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who found the film's combination of different genres, including supernatural fantasy, domestic abuse drama, romantic comedy, and crime procedural, to be jarring. It has since gained a cult following. A sequel, Practical Magic 2, is scheduled to be released on September 18, 2026.
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Plot
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In Massachusetts, the Owens family have been regarded with suspicion for over three centuries because their ancestor Maria Owens survived an attempted execution for witchcraft. Heartbroken when the father of her unborn child left her, Maria cast a spell to prevent herself from ever falling in love again. The spell developed into a curse upon Maria's descendants, dooming any man an Owens woman loves.
In the present, Sally and Gillian Owens are taken in by their aunts Frances and Jet after their parents succumb to the Owens curse. As children, Sally and Gillian are frequently ridiculed by the town's schoolchildren. Upon witnessing their aunts cast a love spell for a woman obsessed with her beloved, Sally casts a spell on herself to ensure she will only fall in love with a man who possesses certain impossible traits, with the intention of never falling in love. Witnessing the same incident, Gillian cannot wait to fall in love. As teenagers, Gillian elopes with her boyfriend and leaves for Los Angeles. Before she departs, she and Sally make a blood spell to always be faithful to one another.
Gillian spends the next decade moving from relationship to relationship across the country, while back in Massachusetts, Sally meets and marries a local named Michael. They have two daughters, Kylie and Antonia. After a truck fatally hits Michael, Sally and her girls move in with the aunts. Learning that they secretly cast a love spell on her so that she could marry and be happy, Sally says the aunts will never teach her daughters magic.
Gillian unexpectedly tells Sally her involvement with a dangerously abusive man named Jimmy Angelov. When Sally arrives to rescue her sister, he takes them hostage in his car. Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila to sedate him, but inadvertently kills him instead. The sisters take Jimmy's body back to the aunts' house, where they attempt to resurrect him with a forbidden spell, which causes him to return and attack Gillian. Sally kills him again, and the sisters bury his remains in the garden. Sally, Gillian, and the aunts have a midnight drinking session in which Jimmy's tequila seems to be influencing them to turn against each other; the aunts leave home the following morning, leaving a message to the sisters to "clean up their own mess".
State investigator Gary Hallett arrives from Tucson, Arizona, in search of Jimmy, who is also a serial killer. Gillian attempts to separate them with a potion, but Kylie and Antonia realize he is the man from Sally's childhood spell and they dispose of the potion. After Gillian and Sally fight, a distraught Sally confesses to Gary, only to discover he is the impossible man from her spell. Unable to deny their attraction, the two kiss.
Upon returning home, Sally realizes Jimmy's spirit is using Gillian as a medium. Gary arrives and uses his silver badge to thwart Jimmy's spirit from possessing him. Sally tells Gary he is there because of her spell, the feelings they have for each other are not real, and the family curse will kill him if they pursue a relationship. Gary replies that curses only work if one believes in them, before returning to Tucson.
Jimmy uses Gillian again in an attempt to kill Sally before Frances and Jet return. Realizing she must embrace magic to save her sister, Sally asks the local townswomen to form a coven and exorcise Jimmy's spirit. They nullify the Owens curse, exorcising Jimmy's spirit and permanently exiling him.
Gary clears the sisters of any suspicion in Jimmy's case and returns to Massachusetts to be with Sally. The townsfolk finally welcome the Owens women into the community, as witches.
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Cast
- Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens, a witch who becomes widowed after the Owens family's curse kills her husband, Michael. She abandons magic and does not allow her daughters to practice it.
- Camilla Belle as young Sally Owens
- Nicole Kidman as Gillian "Gilly" Owens, Sally's free-spirited sister, who embraces her heritage, leaves their small town and becomes the victim of an abusive relationship
- Lora Anne Criswell as young Gillian Owens
- Stockard Channing as Frances Owens, Sally and Gillian's aunt, who tends to be frank and assertive
- Dianne Wiest as Bridget "Jet" Owens, Sally and Gillian's aunt, who is kind and gentle
- Goran Visnjic as James "Jimmy" Angelov, Gillian's lover. Originally from Bulgaria, he is an abusive alcoholic and a serial killer with a cowboy style, who kidnaps the Owens sisters and is killed by them in self-defense twice.
- Aidan Quinn as Investigator Gary Hallet, from Tucson, Arizona, who questions Sally and Gillian in the disappearance of Jimmy Angelov and falls in love with Sally
- Evan Rachel Wood as Kylie Owens, Sally's elder daughter, who lives with her mother and the aunts after the death of her father, Michael. She looks and acts like Gillian.
- Alexandra Artrip as Antonia Owens, Sally's younger daughter, who also lives with her mother and the aunts after the death of her father, Michael. She has dark hair and a spunky personality.
- Mark Feuerstein as Michael, Sally's husband, and Kylie and Antonia's father. He was a victim of his wife's family curse, which results in his untimely death when their daughters are young.
- Caprice Benedetti as Maria Owens, the first witch in the Owens family and the one who casts the spell that curses all of her descendants
- Margo Martindale as Linda Bennett, another friend of Sally's, who also works at her shop
- Chloe Webb as Carla, Sally's good friend, who works at her shop
- Martha Gehman as Patty, one of the town women who responds to Sally's call for help
- Lucinda Jenney as Sara, one of the town women, who initially fears the Owens family but later responds to Sally's call for help
- Peter Shaw as Jack, Sally and Gillian's father, who died from the Owens family's curse when they were children
- Caralyn Kozlowski as Regina Owens, Sally and Gillian's mother, who had committed suicide after losing her husband Jack to the Owens family's curse
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Production
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Practical Magic was filmed in part on an artificial set in California. Because the film's producers decided the house was a big part of the depiction of the Owens culture, a house to accurately represent that vision was built on San Juan Island in the state of Washington.[4] While much of the set from California was brought to that location and placed inside the house, it took nearly a year to perfect the image of the house and the interior.[5] The house, actually only a shell with nothing inside, was built only for this filming and was torn down after filming was completed. The small town scenes were filmed in downtown Coupeville, Washington, a Victorian-era seaside port town located on the south side of Penn Cove on Whidbey Island.[6]
The film’s production design was led by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of the design studio Roman and Williams.[7] They created the film’s richly detailed sets, including the Owens family home, and designed many of the props by hand. According to Standefer and Alesch, they also designed the film’s distinctive spellbook prop, which features original hand-drawn illustrations by Alesch.[8] Standefer has stated, “Stephen and I devoted ourselves to that. We made every little thing in the film, down to the tincture jars and pressed flowers,” adding that Alesch “did incredible etchings of plants that you can see all around the dining room.”[7]
Director Griffin Dunne said he originally had a darker vision for the film. The scene with Sally and Gilly inserting needles into Jimmy was supposed to be much more disturbing and the domestic violence plot line was more intense, but the studio cut the darker material.[9][10] He expressed interest in a director's cut.[11]
According to Sandra Bullock in the DVD commentary, while filming the scene where the Owens women are drunk and slinging insults, the actresses actually got drunk on very bad tequila brought by Kidman.[12][9]
The cast further stated in the film's commentary that they felt supernatural elements of the house started to affect them.[9] Both the cast and crew claimed they heard supernatural noises while filming the coven scene at the end of the film. For the final scene with all of the townspeople at the Owens home, the entire population of the town where filming took place was invited to show up in costume and appear as townsfolk.[13]
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Music
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Composer Michael Nyman's score to the film was abruptly replaced with music by Alan Silvestri for the theatrical release.[14] This last-minute change resulted in the release of two soundtracks, although as primarily a compilation album only the two tracks of newly created material were changed. A 50-track demo (the last two tracks being "Convening the Coven" and "Maria Owens") of Nyman's score has been circulating among fans as a bootleg. The complete Nyman score runs 62:30 and contains music that would later appear, in altered form, in Ravenous and The Actors, as well as a bit of his stepwise chord progression theme from Out of the Ruins/String Quartet No. 3/Carrington/The End of the Affair/The Claim. "Convening the Coven", though not "Maria Owens", was subsequently reissued on The Very Best of Michael Nyman: Film Music 1980–2001,[15] and music that uses material related to this piece has not been used elsewhere. "Convening the Coven" became "City of Turin" on The Glare.
Singer Stevie Nicks headlined the soundtrack's published advertisements, promoting her song "If You Ever Did Believe" and a new recording of her song "Crystal", both featuring Sheryl Crow on back-up vocals.[16]
- Track listing
- "If You Ever Did Believe" – Stevie Nicks
- "This Kiss" – Faith Hill
- "Got to Give It Up (Pt.1)" – Marvin Gaye
- "Is This Real?" – Lisa Hall
- "Black Eyed Dog" – Nick Drake
- "A Case of You" – Joni Mitchell
- "Nowhere and Everywhere" – Michelle Lewis
- "Always on My Mind" – Elvis Presley
- "Everywhere" – Bran Van 3000
- "Coconut" – Harry Nilsson
- "Crystal" – Stevie Nicks
- "Practical Magic" – Alan Silvestri / "Convening the Coven" – The Michael Nyman Orchestra
- "Amas Veritas" – Alan Silvestri / "Maria Owens" – The Michael Nyman Orchestra
Certifications
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Reception
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Box office
Practical Magic opened at #1 with $13.1 million in ticket sales.[18][19][20][21] The film went on to gross $68.3 million worldwide, less than its $75 million production budget.[3][22]
Audience viewership
Practical Magic entered the Max top 10 films chart, securing the #5 spot just one day after its October 1, 2024 premiere on the streaming platform.[23][24]
Critical response
Practical Magic received negative reviews from critics upon release,[25][26] who panned its inconsistent tone and script.[27] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 27% based on 101 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Practical Magic's jarring tonal shifts sink what little potential its offbeat story may have – though Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock's chemistry makes a strong argument for future collaborations."[28] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 46 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of 'B-' on an A+ to F scale.[30]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave Practical Magic a negative review, calling it "a witch comedy so slapdash, plodding, and muddled it seems to have had a hex put on it."[31] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times spoke of the film's unsure tone, "veering uncertainly from horror to laughs to romance", and opined that the film "is too scary for children and too childish for adults".[32]
Garth Stahl of the Hartford Courant was more positive, noting that women in dark comedy and depictions of sisterhood are rare in film.[33] He wrote Practical Magic "has its flaws. Some scenes are weak, occasionally lines are a little muddled, and there is some plot underdevelopment. Yet it is daring and fun — a frolic for two charming actresses and a dapper film premise".[33] He concluded "The main source of attraction is undeniably the enchanting and witty witchcraft. It is simultaneously what makes the Owen sisters outcasts and what makes them special. With a few very sharp scenes, including a jazzy dance sequence, 'Practical Magic' is worth [it]. It is a step toward allowing women to assert themselves in the genre of dark comedy. Now isn't that practical."[33]
Reviewing the film for Amazon, Tom Keogh said, "The film has a variety of tonal changes—cute, scary, glum—that Dunne can't always effectively juggle. But the female-centric, celebratory nature of the film (the fantasies, the sharing, the witchy bonds) is infectious, and supporting roles by Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing as Kidman and Bullock's magical aunts are a lot of fun."[34]
Accolades
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Legacy
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The film has acquired a cult following over the years.[22][9][38] Writing about Practical Magic's legacy in 2018, David Sims of The Atlantic discussed how the film centers relationships between women through the Owens bloodline as well as in the final scene involving the town's women uniting to free Gillian from Jimmy's control.[39][40] He described the film as a mainstream studio feature "that wove dark themes about gender and power into an ostensible crowd-pleasing comedy", qualities that made it unusual for its time and have contributed to its staying power.[39]
In other media
In 2004, Warner Bros. and CBS produced Sudbury, a television pilot written by Becky Hartman Edwards and directed by Bryan Spicer starring Kim Delaney in the role played by Bullock in the film and Jeri Ryan in the role played by Kidman.[41] The series, named for the Sudbury, Massachusetts location of the novel and film, was not picked up.
In 2010, Warner Bros. and ABC Family attempted to develop a prequel television series.[42]
Sequel
In June 2024, it was announced that a sequel was in development. Bullock and Kidman will return to produce the film with Di Novi and were in talks to star in it.[43] Later that same month, Nicole Kidman confirmed that she and Sandra Bullock would reprise their roles in the sequel.[44] Akiva Goldsman, who co-wrote the screenplay for the original film, would return to write the script.[45][46] Griffin Dunne hinted that a woman will direct the sequel, while he will serve as an executive producer.[47]
While specific plot details remain under wraps, the sequel will be based on Alice Hoffman's 2021 novel The Book of Magic, the fourth installment in her Practical Magic series.[48][49] Although the timeline is still uncertain, in August 2024, producer Denise Di Novi is optimistic about beginning production next year.[50] In January 2025, Susanne Bier was reportedly in talks to direct the sequel.[51] In February 2025, Kidman mentioned that the sequel was "moving ahead rapidly".[52] Three months later, it was announced that Bier would direct the film, which is scheduled for release on September 18, 2026.[53]
In July 2025, it was announced Joey King had been cast as one of Sally's daughters.[54] That same month, it was revealed Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest would reprise their roles as Frances and Jet, respectively;[55] Lee Pace, Xolo Maridueña, Solly McLeod, and Maisie Williams were also cast in unknown roles.[56]
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See also
References
External links
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