You know how you know you're middle-aged? All the nostalgia-based media is aimed squarely at you. In the past few years, we've seen legasequels for Beetlejuice, Naked Gun, and The Devil Wears Prada, all of which were key touchstones in my childhood. These things are almost never as good as the originals, but that's not really the point: they are designed to cash in on our desire to go back to an easier, better time, like when we were kids. I have no idea when I saw Practical Magic for the first time. Probably on some long weekend in college on TNT or USA, back when I had both basic cable and time to watch TV without a purpose. Was it good? I don't know! But I felt good when I watched it.
Practical Magic 2 seemed like a perfect kickoff to spooky season, so I talked my friend Morgan into a Thursday afternoon screening. As the movie begins, Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) is heartbroken by the death of her second husband Gary (Aiden Quinn). Not only has she lost another love, his death means the Owens curse has not been broken and her daughters will suffer the same lonely fate as every other woman in the family. She does a spell to make her daughters forget about witchcraft and vows not to use magic again. The plot jumps forward about fifteen years (though it's been 28 years since the original movie - more on that later). These days, Antonia (Maisie Williams) is a doctor-in-training and Kylie (Joey King) is a college student with a pathologically nice boyfriend, Gideon (Xolo Maridueña).
The Owens women come together to celebrate Aunt Jet's (Dianne Wiest) birthday, but Jet is the one with a surprise up her sleeve. She's found a magical book that could overcome the curse, but it needs a powerful and focused witch to unseal the pages. Meanwhile, Kylie confesses her love to Gideon, not realizing that her words mark him for death. After an accident, the truth comes out, and Kylie is determined to open the book despite her lack of witchy training. She takes off for England, hoping to break the curse and save Gideon. She quickly gets in over her head, and Sally and Gillian must fly across the Atlantic to rescue her and prevent a magical catastrophe.
From the opening scenes of this movie, I was right back where I wanted to be. The Owens home, with its white siding, elegant turrets, and well-tended gardens, is basically the house of my dreams. Not to mention that there is blatant product placement for the Ninja Slushi, a machine I have considered buying many times. Sally is wearing a long skirt and a sweater, and her cup of tea is stirring itself, and I'm settling in for some witchy good times.
And the movie gives it to me. Aunt Jet and Aunt Franny (Stockard Channing) are really leaning into the wise elder magic, while new character Ian Wright (Lee Pace) is a practitioner with both the power and knowledge to take on the Owens sisters. He's also, you know, Lee Pace, and when he's introduced buck naked and covered with tattoos, I definitely sat up in my seat. He can unblock my magical flow any time.
Is it a perfect movie? No. There's a lot of mumbly dialogue that seems more improvised than intentional. The story is weighted heavily towards Sally and Kylie, while Gillian and Antonia mostly disappear. But the aunts are used to great effect, and everything looked exactly as cozy and cottagecore as I could possibly desire.
Speaking of looks...
In the original Practical Magic, Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest were sort of passing the torch to the new generation of actresses. This movie, however, is an example of the older generation refusing to let go. Actress Evan Rachel Wood played Kylie in the original Practical Magic, and she's now 39 years old. In Practical Magic 2, she's recast by Joey King, who is 27 years old. This allows Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman to pretend that they are women in their forties instead of women in their sixties. I would say it's witchcraft, but it's more likely expensive plastic surgery. They are both OLDER than Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest were in the first movie. And like, sure, it's cool that actresses are no longer put out to pasture when they turn forty, but it doesn't actually feel like progress when they aren't allowed to have faces that actually demonstrate maturity and wisdom.
I imagine this was released in late September to ensure that it would be streaming by Halloween, and I encourage you to check it out then if you didn't catch it in theaters. It gave me the same fall feels as the original, and there were enough lovely sisterhood moments to bring a tear to my eye. The romance between Sally and Ian is a bit of an afterthought, but I'm happy to just stare at Lee Pace and enjoy the fact that he doesn't have something weird on his pretty face. It's a great way to kick off spooky season and a nice nostalgia bomb at the same time.
Of course, not every romantic fantasy involves witches, curses, and a dreamy Victorian house. Sometimes, the magic is simply getting two attractive people to fall in love, even if the movie has to invent a completely ridiculous premise to make it happen. In One Night Only, sex is only allowed on one night of the year, which sounds like a recipe for chaos rather than romance. But beneath all the horny hijinks, it's actually a charming rom-com about the difference between getting laid and finding love. Read my review of One Night Only here!
How are you getting ready for spooky season? Let me know!