After nearly 30 years since the original film, both Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as the Owens sisters in Practical Magic 2.
This is the latest film from director Susanne Bier, once again based on the books by Alice Hoffman, and it has a returning cast of people like Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, and some new faces like Joey King, Maisie Williams, Lee Pace, and more.
Going into this film, I was hoping for a good, fun time. Full transparency, in the 90s and early 2000s, my mom completely fell in love with all of the various witch content that there was at the time. Whether it’s something like The Craft, Practical Magic, Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Good Witch, whatever the case may be, my mom was always a fan of the various witch stories. And that continues today.
So, I’ve always gravitated toward witch stories that pushed away from the classic green-skinned witch trope and leaned more into motherhood, friendship, and sisterhood. Consequently, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Practical Magic.
When that original film came out, it wasn’t necessarily the biggest success at the box office and it was kind of divisive, but it definitely built a cult fan base. So here we are all these years later with a new film bringing back legacy characters and introducing us to new characters. With a lot of legacy sequels these days, it’s a hit-or-miss thing. They can either be great and really hit the nail on the head, or they can kind of be not so great.
For what it’s worth, my mom walked away from this movie having had a great time. As soon as she found out this movie was coming out, she told me, “If you get an early screening, please invite me,” which was already the plan. Once I got the chance to take my mom to see the movie, as soon as it was over, she was already saying she couldn’t wait for this to be part of her rotation of movies alongside the first one. She already has plans to see the second one two more times this week, so take that recommendation as you will.
Nearly three decades after the original, Sally and Gillian Owens return with the next generation of Owens women confronting the family’s magical legacy. Sally tried to protect her daughters, Kylie and Antonia, by keeping them away from magic. But when Kylie becomes entangled in the same romantic curse that has haunted the Owens women for generations, Sally and Gillian are forced to confront their family’s past. Their search takes them to England, where they uncover new secrets surrounding the Owens family’s magical history.
I’m happy to start this off by saying I had a good time with Practical Magic 2. It’s not perfect. I definitely have some gripes, but when you look back at that original film, it wasn’t a film that was immediately beloved. It’s a film that grew over time and built a cult fan base. I think part of that is the charm of the first film, and I think what Practical Magic 2 does the best is retain that charm.
That charm is immediately felt through Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. I also enjoyed seeing Dianne Wiest here as well as Stockard Channing; I think the two of them bring a lot of charm as well. Of course, they are seasoned actresses alongside Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, but it’s really cool to see older, seasoned actors alongside people who were the newer blood at the time and are now more seasoned actors themselves, alongside Joey King and Maisie Williams.
I thought that was a cool dynamic. You kind of have a passing of the torch while, at the same time, this isn’t a situation where Joey King and Maisie Williams are the main characters of the story. This is still Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s movie, which I enjoyed.
I think where this film is at its best is when it comes down to the heart around the characters, and their performances. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are absolutely fantastic in this film. They’re charming, the chemistry is fantastic, and the performances are emotional. Anything I cared about in this movie was 100% because of them.
One thing I enjoyed about this film, and I don’t know that this is going to work for everybody, is that it takes an intentional effort to feel like a modern-day film while also feeling like a 90s movie in the way it’s shot and the way certain things are framed.
It does lack a little bit of the uniqueness that 90s cameras just had for the time. There was a look to 90s movies that we just can’t capture in the modern day unless you try hard. But when it comes down to the way things are framed and staged, even though everything looks crystal clear and doesn’t have that same aesthetic a 90s movie did, there is something about the way this film looks and the way they chose to shoot it that feels like a 90s movie.
I thought that was a lot of fun, giving this film a natural feel from the first to the second. On top of that, the musical score, which is fairly subtly used, and some of the needle drops very much feel like an old-school 90s film. I enjoyed the intention behind making this feel like a sequel that doesn’t seem too detached from a film that came out in the 90s, and it feels like the two can be watched back-to-back. Even though this one looks a lot cleaner and more digital compared to the first, the two still feel pretty similar overall.
But beyond the filmmaking, I think the biggest positive here is the cast across the board.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are the heart of this movie, but I also enjoyed Joey King here. A lot of the film’s emotional weight came from her character. I’ve always thought she was a good actress, but I think she’s solid here.
I enjoyed Maisie Williams, but we’ll get into her a little bit more when we get into my negatives on the film.
Outside of them, I enjoyed Lee Pace as well. I thought he was a fun inclusion. There are some great moments of banter and chemistry and kind of snarkiness between him and Sandra Bullock’s character. There’s immediately a palpable chemistry, but there’s also this question of whether or not he’s a trustworthy character amidst everything that’s going on. I enjoyed the back-and-forth between the two of them.
When it comes down to the story and the characters, the most interesting part of this movie is the fact that Sandra Bullock’s character has chosen to suppress her magic over the years. So she’s not raised her daughters to have this magic or to even know that they are witches.
That’s, of course, when the inciting incident in this film happens – one of the daughters, Kylie, falls in love with somebody. This ends up bringing up the unfortunate fact that they have this curse that will kill any man they fall in love with in this family.
This forces Sandra Bullock’s character to have to tell her daughters about the fact that they have magic. I enjoyed the journey of Sandra Bullock’s character, who’s been trying to suppress this side of herself, having to unlock it again and reconnect with it.
I thought that journey was the best, especially since Nicole Kidman’s character has taken a completely different approach. She’s wanted to tell her nieces the entire time, and she wants her sister to tap back into the magic. Since she hasn’t, she’s just kind of standing by trying to help her do that, but also dealing with somebody who doesn’t really want to do that.
I thought the back-and-forth and the banter and that journey for Sandra Bullock’s character alongside somebody like Nicole Kidman, who brings a lot of levity but also a very realistic, loving but tough-love kind of feel in terms of the sister vibe, was great.
The two of them were great, and that part of the story was really cool. It’s everything that made this film feel charming and fun and exciting to watch when it came down to the small moments between the characters, and all of this is just elevated by fantastic performances.
Xolo Maridueña is in here as well, who you know from Blue Beetle and Cobra Kai, and he’ll also be in the upcoming One Piece season. He’s been popping up in a lot of things over the years, and it’s nice to see him. I do wish this film had done more with him in this role, if I’m completely honest.
I thought he was a solid part of the movie, but it feels like he’s more there just for the inciting incident to get our characters to do something and less so because his character is truly meaningful within the movie. He’s just more of a reason for others to do something and less so of a character in and of himself. But it was nice to see him in the movie for sure.
I think that’s where the heart and the appeal of this film lies. It’s the characters, it’s their journey, it’s the charm, it’s the sisterhood feel to it, and it’s the motherhood storyline here. You have two daughters that feel betrayed by their mother for not allowing them to know their true nature, which has now put them in this dark space.
With all that said, moving into my negatives, I think what holds this film back is the feeling that they needed to include an antagonist in a way that just comes off goofy.
This is again a story of self-exploration, not only for characters like Sandra Bullock’s, who has to rediscover herself, but also specifically for her daughter Kylie, played by Joey King, who now has to discover this new thing and is trying to find a way to break this curse so that her boyfriend, who she loves, does not die.
All of that was interesting, but it leads to some sort of evil person who wants to do things for evil reasons. They give you the backstory as to why, but that element of the movie could have been removed for me altogether.
I was more engaged in the story of this mother trying to reconnect with her daughter. I was more engaged with the story of this woman having to let go of the shackles that are holding down her magic abilities. I was enjoyed more the notion of a young girl who just found out she’s a witch having to tap into powers that she has no control over, and her mother and aunt being worried that she’s going to tap into the wrong kind of powers.
All of that was far more interesting to me than what we get in the third act, where we just get this obligatory fight scene of sorts with a specific villain that felt very predictable. You knew everything that was going to happen there. There were not a lot of reveals in that department that were very shocking or all that crazy or exciting.
By the time it was over, I found myself charmed by this movie – endeared by it, engaged with it, into the cutesy moments and the story of sisterhood and motherhood at its center. The story deals mostly with love, not only in a romantic way, but also familial love.
But when I look at some of the other story beats this film chose to tackle, it does sometimes pull away from what could have just been a much stronger story overall.
I mentioned earlier when it came down to the cast that I enjoyed Maisie Williams in the film, but she’s given nothing to do. She’s essentially told to sit in one location the entire movie and look over a character.
Without getting into spoilers, I thought that was such a bummer because part of what makes the Practical Magic really great is this journey of two sisters. And in this one, you have the sisters at the center of the story again, going after one of the younger sisters and the two younger sisters in this film.
I thought it was going to be a little bit of a passing-of-the-torch kind of thing, and while there is some of that here for sure, especially as the story wraps up, it feels more like they didn’t know what to do with her character. They had a complete character arc and story that they wanted to tell with one of the daughters, but the other one is relegated to just sitting around.
So while I enjoyed Maisie Williams in the charming moments, in those sister moments, and in that mother-daughter element of the film, it’s a bummer because she’s a good actress who deserved more to do.
I think she’s solid in the movie, and the moments she shines, she definitely shines. But it ultimately made her feel like this tacked-on character that they only included because sisterhood is such a big part of the story here and less so because she actually had anything meaningful to do in the movie itself.
Despite the fact that the story crams in things that overcomplicate or just came off rushed, undercooked, or goofy, I do think you have mostly a charming film here with great performances at the center of it, specifically from Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman and the other returning cast members.
There are a lot of moments of heart here. While this is by no means one of my favorite films that I’ve seen this year, I think it’s a very cute, fun legacy sequel that does exactly what it needs to do for a cult film of the 90s.
My mom loved this movie, and I do think people who love the first one are likely going to enjoy this, especially when it calls back to moments from the first with touching flashbacks at just the right moments.
There’s a great story again of motherhood and sisterhood here, and those things outweigh and outshine the elements about the story that do feel a little over-convoluted or just kind of pointless within the story.
It’s not the strongest script. It’s not the strongest narrative. It’s very predictable in a lot of ways. But this is a movie that I would say definitely has more strengths in feel, chemistry, and tone.
It’s more of a fun, cute, enjoyable ride than it is an incredibly well-written one, but still a ride that I’m happy I took and a movie that I can say I had a good time with.
I think I’ll look back on this film fondly, and somewhere down the line, I’ll have a good time revisiting the original Practical Magic alongside this one as a double feature.
Rating: 6.5/10