I am one of those Halloween-obsessed people that watches a horror film every day in October, but I always make room for Practical Magic because it just is not Halloween without it.
The Owens family has been cursed since the witch hunts in Salem. One of their ancestors, a witch, suffered a broken heart so horrible that her pain placed a curse on all of the women in her family, a curse which would kill any man they fell in love with. It was this curse that killed the father, and ultimately the mother, of Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally (Sandra Bullock) Owens, orphaning them and leaving them in the care of their aunts (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest). In order to protect herself from the curse, young Sally performs a spell to find a man with qualities that couldn’t possibly exist. With a little help from a spell by her aunts, Sally does fall in love and has two young girls before her husband succumbs to the curse and the only thing that saves her from dying of a broken heart is the love she and her sister share.
When Gillian needs Sally’s help in return, it ends in the accidental murder of Gillian’s abusive boyfriend, Jimmy (Goran Visnjic). After a spell gone awry and a backyard burial, Sally and Gillian find themselves haunted by Jimmy’s ghost. To make things worse, a detective (Aidan Quinn) shows up searching for Jimmy and, strangely, has all of the qualities that Sally had asked for as a child. The sisters now have to rid themselves of a ghost, avoid trouble with the authorities and protect Sally from succumbing to the family curse, once again.
Practical Magic seems to appeal mostly to women and I believe that is because it has elements that we can relate to. No, we may not be witches capable of casting spells, but we understand a close relationship with a sister or a female friend who is close enough to be a sister who we would do absolutely anything for. My personal favorite is the phone tree scene because I feel like it sums up Gillian and Sally’s relationship perfectly. Gillian gives her sister what she desperately wanted, but couldn’t get for herself, while also sticking it to the women who had been so cruel to Sally for years. Throughout the entire movie, this is what the sisters do for one another, help and protect. Ultimately, Practical Magic is a film about their love. It is romantic love that could cause their deaths, but it is the bond between sisters that breaks the curse and allows them both to live.
Practical Magic came out as both Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman were becoming household names with hit films like Batman Forever, Speed and While You Were Sleeping years before both became Academy Award winners. I had already been a Bullock fan since Love Potion No. 9, but it wasn’t until Practical Magic that I was able to call myself a fan of Nicole Kidman. It was the first time that I had seen her play a character that was completely likable and my 14-year-old self found myself wishing Gillian was my sister.
Bullock plays the responsible sister who is afraid to really live, while Kidman is the wild child who recklessly lives life to the fullest. Their characters complement each other perfectly and both actresses are completely believable in each role. Their performances bring life to a script that could have gone very wrong in the wake of poor casting.
It has been 20 years and Practical Magic still holds up. It isn’t full of dated technology, special effects or political messages to force the film to ever sink into irrelevance. Instead, you get a film with a solid message and a fun plot that will always be relevant to women everywhere. The addition of witchcraft, comedy, fun scenes like the Midnight Margaritas moment, a solid soundtrack, and the supporting cast make Practical Magic an irresistible classic that you can watch year after year.
