Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The 1998 film ‘Practical Magic’ stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the Owens sisters, who belong to a long line of witches cursed against finding lasting love. If they love someone truly, he is fated to die prematurely. So their mother dies of a heartbreak after their father’s demise, and the girls move in with their spinster aunts Jet (Dianne Wiest) and Frances (Stockard Channing).
The opening minutes of Practical Magic are a lot of fun. The girls get to grow up with their witchy aunts, they are single, smart, independent and infamous in their judgmental little town as “witches.” After seeing how adults go a little crazy when it comes to romance, little Sally Owens (Camilla Belle) casts a spell to make sure she never falls in love, while her sister Gillian (Lora Anne Criswell) cannot wait to grow up and break hearts.
Once they’re adults, Nicole Kidman’s Gillian runs away from the small town with her boyfriend and lives it up, while Sandra Bullock’s Sally gets swept off her feet by a local despite guarding her heart for years. Soon enough, trouble and tragedy befall both sisters. But the biggest problems in ‘Practical Magic’ occur due to Gillian’s bad taste in men and of course beloved sister Sally rushes to help her. Obviously, they need some witchcraft along the way.
The onscreen sibling dynamic between Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock is the strongest ingredient in Practical Magic. Sally and Gillian aren’t twins, but sometimes they might as well be, and the fact that they’re witches gives their sisterly bond an even stronger blood connection. Although, hilariously, they still write letters to each other when they’re apart. C’mon, the creators could’ve come up with something more magical for them to communicate with. Personal teleporting owls, perhaps? But the letters do serve a crucial purpose in a subplot introduced in the second half of the film.
And that’s the one thing that’s a bit of a problem: despite being called Practical Magic, the actual magical elements are pretty thin throughout the runtime. A forced romantic subplot between Sally and a dreamy detective doesn’t flow particularly well either. Otherwise, the genre-blending actually works, moving between the comical elements of these witches simply living their lives and the much darker storyline about Gillian being trapped in a scary relationship.
I mean, I can see why some people wouldn’t enjoy the tonal shifts, but the overarching theme of sisters, and women in general, watching each other’s backs and being there for one another is absolutely heartwarming. The vibe here is very much “sisters before misters.” Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing don’t get a lot of screen time as the sisters’ wise old aunts, but they’re an absolute delight, happily meddling in people’s romantic lives, although they promptly pack their bags and scoot when their nieces actually run into big trouble.
It was a lot of fun watching Practical Magic for the first time in 2026, almost three decades after its release. I guess I’ll have to admit that I love both Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. I went to watch ‘The Lost City‘ all alone in the theater, and there were literally just two other people in the entire hall.
But Practical Magic was a flop when it came out, and growing up in small-town India, I’d never even heard of it as a kid. Nor do I remember it ever playing on HBO or Star Movies, which were pretty much our windows into Hollywood movies growing up. Or maybe it did come on TV and we just never got around to watching it. Who knows. Either way, it’s kind of wild that ‘Practical Magic’ eventually got a belated sequel, which is mostly because both Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock are still big stars who can pull a crowd. And Nicole Kidman is an even bigger Hollywood name today than she was in 1998.
If I had to put a number on it, I’d probably give Practical Magic a 7.5 on 10.
‘Practical Magic’ is available on Netflix (at least at the time of this post)
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