Practical Magic

Rating: ***
Date Seen: 1998-10-16

Practical Magic is, to use a rather silly cliché, the feel good movie of the year. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play two sisters who inherit a curse passed down through many generations of witches, a curse which began in the time of the Salem witch trials. Their sentence? Any man who falls in love with one of them will die an untimely death. Inevitably, this and other complications wreak havoc on them.

Despised by the local townspeople for their odd ways and mysterious magic, the witches keep mostly to themselves in their elaborate house which could almost be called a mansion. Raised by two wacky but charming aunts after their father dies from the curse and their mother of a broken heart, Sally and Gillian are taught in the ways of spells, incantations, and eating chocolate for breakfast.

As they become adults, Sally, Sandra Bullock's character, comes to disdain being a witch and wishes only to live a "normal" life, while Gillian (Nicole Kidman) takes to the wild side, and ends up in an abusive relationship. Sally's husband meets his untimely fate, so she and her two daughters return home to live with the aunts. When Gillian's troublesome relationship turns dangerous, Sally comes to her rescue, with some disasterous results.

Despite a few logical flaws in the plot, I really liked the art direction, acting, and all-out wackiness of this movie. I remember hearing Sandra Bullock commenting on one of the Late Night shows, summarizing the point of the movie as being "a celebration of freaks." This description fits nicely. Individualism, to the point of being wierd, wacky, or even a total outcast, can bring out magic powers we never knew we had.