Once upon a time, there were two witchly sisters Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally (Sandra Bullock) who ran into all sorts of complications because of a curse placed on their family by an ancestor long ago. It decreed that any man who falls in love with an Owens woman will meet a swift demise.
Fast forward nearly 30 years and Sally now has two adult daughters: Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams). She has concealed all knowledge of witchcraft from them and attempts to lead a normal spell-free life. (Shades of Samantha Stephens from ‘Bewitched’).
Alarm bells start to ring when daughter Kylie meets the man of her dreams. Inevitably, Sally and sister Gillian have to come clean when the man in question ends up on life support. With this revelation all sorts of machinations ensue. Will there be a solution to the family curse and, if so, what does it entail?
The quest for some sort of resolution leads the family across the Atlantic to another sleepy hollow in the English countryside and a tattooed professor (Lee Pace) who makes some interesting revelations about the Owens family. The entire plot revolves around if, how and when they will ever be free this unfortunate state of affairs.
‘Practical Magic 2’ directed by Susanne Bier
Basically, this film is a fairytale designed for adults. As such it goes beyond the standard ‘goodies-&-baddies’ scenario. For example, there are enough ‘complications’ in the story to maintain our interest. Inevitably, there are special effects but they are not overdone. Instead they complement the acting, script and editing. Moreover, the leads are all competent professionals: Kidman and Bullock are versatile performers and come across as credible supernatural beings with at least some of the foibles of mere mortals.
Part of the cinema experience is the ability to suspend disbelief and enter – albeit briefly – the world depicted on the big screen. How effectively we enter that world depends on the talents of performers, writers, editors and technicians. Given how these diverse elements combine, this film is more than soap opera antics sprinkled with a few special effects. (How much more, is a matter of personal taste).
If you are into escapist fantasy (and who doesn’t need that occasionally?), this movie will appeal to you. In any case, it has impressed the many others who have made it financially viable at the box office.
Interestingly, there is one other noteworthy aspect of this film: despite the gap of 28 years between the original movie and sequel, neither Bullock nor Kidman appear to have aged a single day. (Perhaps they really are supernatural beings!)