Practical Magic (104 minutes)

Blood on the moon. Where's my tiger's eye?

Welcome back to The 90-Minute Movie! The newsletter that finds the best (and worst) short movies for you to enjoy. We’re already a third of the way into October and I feel behind. There’s just SO MUCH to watch. I haven’t jumped into any of my annual classics (Halloween, Hocus Pocus, Scream) YET, but I’ll get there. What are the Halloween movies you simply cannot live without? Let me know in the comments and then send this to a friend. You’ll be improving two people's lives (mine and theirs). 

This week I wanted to cover something comforting. After my Vamps debacle last week, I was nervous to take a risk with something new. Thank god Max is streaming Practical Magic (1998, 104 minutes) so I could slip comfortably into the familiar. And the loved. Because, wow, this movie is important to a LOT of people. Specifically a LOT of women. I’ll admit that this was never a comfort movie of mine in the way it is for some people. I’ve seen it a few times, enjoy it, and understand what makes it special, but I never got to the annual viewing phase. I have nothing against it in this way, it just never happened for me. (When I get sad I watch Bridget Jones’ Diary. I don’t make the rules.) 

The plot of this movie is a bit all over the place and critics will have you believe that is too detrimental to overcome. I disagree (as do a lot of viewers) but keep that in mind right now while I give you the rundown: Practical Magic is all about the Owens sisters. Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) come from a long line of ostracized witches cursed by a distant ancestor, Maria. Maria, banished to a Massachusetts island and accused of being a witch (she’s a mistress), places a spell to never fall in love again. Only… it affects the entire Owens line. This is sort of like that myth about the Kardashians, only every man to fall in love with an Owens woman, dies. Sally and Gillian lose their father this way. And their mother “dies of a broken heart” (which seems to be a code for suicide). The girls go to live with their practicing witch aunts Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest). Later in life, the girls go their separate ways until the curse and an abusive boyfriend, Jimmy (Goran Visnijic) pull them back together. 

Whew. And that’s only the first like, twenty minutes. There’s also a spell placed for a guy who can flip pancakes and has two different colored eyes that is revealed in a cop (Aidan Quinn) from Arizona. But… I could be here for 90-minutes explaining this to you so just try to keep up.

What critics hated about Practical Magic when it was first released was the disjointed plot. They couldn’t wrap their heads around moving from lightness and joy in midnight margaritas to the terrifying fear of Gillian’s abusive boyfriend to the death of a husband to PTA phone trees. I will admit there is a certain lack of focus but what these mostly male critics seemed to miss entirely is that the whiplash between all those things is very much what it means to be a woman. Walking home alone at night we always have a low-level fear that we could be attacked or approached but we still go out and seek joy. Many of us know what it is to fear a boyfriend. Many of us know what it is to be afraid to fall in love because of past loss. Women live in constant contradiction. And this is why this movie has lived on for so long and has been embraced by so many. To men, it’s confusing. To us, it’s just life.

And in that life, we require sisterhood, by blood or by choice. Practical Magic explores both but is very focused on the blood bond between Gillian and Sally. It is ultimately their relationship that saves Gillian from being possessed by Jimmy, making their sisterhood stronger than any curse and any possession.

(Oh right… I’m realizing I didn’t get to that yet but Sally and Gillian kill the abusive boyfriend, Jimmy, cast a spell to bring him back, and then kill him again. He then possesses Gillian. The plot isn’t this movie’s strongest asset. I needn’t keep saying it.)

Their bond is so strong that throughout the movie, the two women can sense when something is wrong with the other, even from across the country. To me, this is more about them being sisters, than witches. Ask any woman and you will find that we all have a bit of this intuition. Or as one of the aunts says, “There’s a little witch in all of us.”

The movie also explores sisterhood without that blood bond via the other women in town. This part of the story is a bit sloppy. Though judged and feared for most of their lives, the Owens sisters manage to pull in support from their community when it matters most. On the surface, this seems to be driven by the PTA phone tree (yeesh) but in actuality, there’s nothing like an abusive man to bring women together. Even if it means creating a coven with women you’ve tormented your entire life.

From a technical standpoint, the movie isn’t anything special. It’s competent in the way that 90’s movies are. It isn’t particularly atmospheric or groundbreaking. But something I do love to note is that Practical Magic was directed by Griffin Dunne, who has starred in two of my favorite movies of all time: American Werewolf in London and After Hours. I guess in my eyes the man can do no wrong. He was asked in an interview if he would be involved in the recently announced sequel, to which he humbly said, “I’m going to be an executive producer on the picture. I’m sure a woman director will bring what she has to it. But I’m very curious to see it!” What a guy. He gets it. 

I do want to end with this very important and final thought: I think Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock are the hottest they have ever looked in this movie. And I know that is just as big a draw for women as the whole sisterhood angle. Seriously.