1998’s “Practical Magic” told the story of the Owens sisters—straight-laced Sally (Sandra Bullock) and free-spirited Gillian (Nicole Kidman)—raised from childhood by their spinster aunts Jet (Dianne Wiest) and Franny (Stockard Channing), who, like all the women in their family, were a.) witches and b.) victims of an old curse that ensured that tragedy would befall anyone with whom they fell in love.
The premise, inspired by a novel by Alice Hoffman, was intriguing enough, sort of a contemporary riff on the likes of “Bell, Book and Candle.” But the resulting film was a bizarre clash of ideas and tones that felt more like a story pile-up than a convincing narrative. The film went on to develop a cult following via home video among viewers who, if I were to guess, want something to pass the time between Stevie Nicks tours.
Now comes “Practical Magic 2,” an example of the latter—a listless, wholly unneeded piece of IP exploitation that retreads material that wasn’t all that spectacular to begin with.
Although the widowed Sally ended the first film finding happiness with a cop who helped clear her and Gillian of the killing (and subsequent revival) of the latter’s abusive serial killer lover, this one opens with the discovery that the curse still exists and that he died soon after they were married. (Bad news for the Aidan Quinn hive out there.)
Now 0-for-2 in this arena, Sally decides the best course of action is to not only swear off romance altogether but to cast a spell on her young daughters, Kylie and Antonia, so that they forget that they are witches in the first place. Alas, when the story picks up today, the free-spirited Kylie (Joey King) is dating the adoring Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), but the moment she says she loves him, he winds up in a coma, and Sally is forced to reveal the truth about who they are.
Frantically searching for a spell to help save Gideon, Kylie comes across the Book of Ravens, a tome that suggests a possible reversal of the curse that requires a trip to England. She immediately takes off, followed by Sally and Gillian, hoping to catch her before she tries to deploy magic too powerful for her to control.
There are also a couple of guys who enter the mix (at their own peril): Kylie makes the acquaintance of Thomas Lockland (Solly McLeod), a hunky farmhand with an unexpected connection to the Owens family. Meanwhile, Gillian and Sally enlist the aid of Ian Wright (Lee Pace), a hunky academic who specializes in the dark arts and making Sally reconsider her no-romance pledge.
While the screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel is slightly less convoluted than before, it is still overstuffed with too many plot developments and characters—so many, in fact, that even at 130 minutes (roughly a half-hour longer than its predecessor), a number of them are barely introduced before being cast aside.
The biggest victim is clearly Antonia, whose mother, aunt and sister all zip off to England while she spends virtually the entire film fretting over the comatose Gideon in his hospital room. Replacing Griffin Dunne in the director’s chair is Susanne Bier, but as things plod along, she shows little discernible affinity for the material. One wonders whether she got the gig more because of her previous working relationships with the two stars (“The Undoing” and “The Perfect Couple” with Kidman, “Bird Box” with Bullock).
There are a lot of good actresses on hand here, but most of them end up being wasted. Bullock and Kidman are literally playing the same character beats as the first time around, making it seem as if nothing about their relationship has changed since we last saw them. Wiest and Channing are fun, but while it is nice to have them back, their appearances are perfunctory at best. King probably gets the most to do, and while she is fine, the decision to keep her separate from Williams for most of the running time seems like a missed opportunity. For a movie so overtly female-centric, it seems odd that Pace delivers the most compelling performance, striking genuine sparks with Bullock in their scenes together. It makes you wish that some of the more extraneous stuff could have been pruned to devote more time to their byplay.
“Practical Magic 2” may indeed evoke enough memories of the first film to satisfy its less-demanding fans for a second time. As thoroughly unnecessary witch-based entertainments featuring Nicole Kidman go, it’s probably preferable to that forgettable big-screen version of “Bewitched.”
For the most part, though, it’s an eminently forgettable product that is more interested in rehashing the first film’s familiar bits than in giving viewers any new ones of note. (Besides the aforementioned margaritas, we get another deployment of Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut” on the soundtrack; you know, “Nilsson Schmilsson” had other songs.) Who knows? Maybe in 2054, they’ll finally have figured out the right spell to make magic out of one of these movies.
