I don’t remember the first time I
saw Practical Magic, it’s just always been in my memory. I was seven
when the film came out, a little too young to see it in theaters but just old
enough for it to become part of the regular rotation of films I rented from the
local Movie Gallery. If I wasn’t renting Practical Magic it was Midnight
in the Garden of Good and Evil or Interview with the Vampire - I
couldn’t get enough of all things spooky. Over the years I continued to go back
to Practical Magic, I even read the Alice Hoffman book the film is based
on. It’s just one of those movies that has stuck around from my childhood. From
a very young age I was introduced to all kinds of things that go bump in the
night, so this story of cursed lovesick witches and a murder investigation was
perfect for me.
A pair of sisters, Sally and
Gillian, come to live with their eccentric - and by eccentric I mean they are
clearly witches of the Stevie Nicks variety - maternal aunts after the death of
their parents. Aunt Frances (Stockard Channing) and Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest)
tell them of their family history: 1) that they come from a long line of
witches and 2) there is a family curse - any man who falls in love with an
Owens woman will die. Sandra Bullock plays the assertive, driven, Sally, the
sister who wanted to never be in love, and she casts a spell for a man that
couldn’t possibly exist to protect her from ever falling in love. But she eventually
falls victim to the Owens family love curse, meeting a man, having children and
then losing him. Nicole Kidman, who had just finished filming Eyes Wide Shut,
was at the top of her game. She knew just how cool she was, and played Gillian
as a wild child, always getting into trouble and falling in love with all the
wrong men - like ultimate bad boy Jimmy Angelov (Goran Visnjic), who gets
what's coming to him in the end. Visnjic is so good at playing a slimy sleazy
creature that even after all these years if I ever see him in anything, I just
think of Jimmy.
Aidan Quinn plays Gary Hallett, an
investigator from Arizona who starts asking the sisters questions when Jimmy
goes missing. He is stern but soft, and when Sally can’t seem to lie to him
about what happened to Jimmy he confesses he had been reading a letter she
wrote to Gillian, and that was part of the reason he came to investigate was so
that he could meet her. Is he her impossible man? Or maybe just trying to get
her to tell the truth about Jimmy? Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest really
steal the show with their outlandish flowing witch outfits and their quick
witted back-and-forth banter. It’s best shown in scenes where the aunts have
midnight margaritas, then dance along to Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut,” or when
they hilariously welcome a large group of townswomen into their grand Victorian
witches' house. These are the same townswomen who, despite their fear of the
Owens women, band together to help Sally rescue Gillian from Jimmy's evil
spirit, Channing and Wiest guiding them all the way. Even the aunts' house
could be considered a character, a Victorian home filled to the brim with
antiques and every kind of knick knack you would expect two spinster witches to
have, perched on a cliff overlooking some unnamed majestic body of water. The
kitchen, garden and conservatory are as grand and spooky as you would expect in
a witch's house - so grand that if I ever win the lottery you better believe
I’m building a house with replicas of them. The film also has some choice late
90’s hits, including Faith Hill’s “This Kiss,” not one but two Stevie Nicks
songs, and we can’t forget Elvis Presley’s “Always on My Mind,” making more
than one appearance sung drunkenly by more than one character. 
Even after all these years the film
is still as magical and practical as it was when I was a kid. It was just
spooky enough to really draw me in. The cast is pretty outstanding for a late
90’s movie - you got your superstars (Bullock and Kidman), handsome leading men
(Quinn and Visnjic) and veteran actresses (Channing and Wiest). The film has
plenty of moments that are spooky but it is also filled with light-hearted
moments and an overall feeling of sisterhood, not just between biological
siblings but all of the women of the small town who come together at the end.
It is a wonderful introduction to witches, in a very innocent and fun way. To
me the film is filled with bits of nostalgia, not just bits of pop culture from
my childhood, but the nostalgic feeling of a film that was one of my first
introductions to all things spooky and creepy. Without Practical Magic I
don’t know that I would have ended up loving things that go bump in the night.
-
Anna Lathem
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