Movie Review – Practical Magic 2

This sequel was a long time coming and I always wondered why until I realized that the original film wasn’t well received by critics and didn’t do spectacularly well at the box office. What the original does have is a very loyal following of fans who love the film for its fall vibes and heartfelt performances.

The sequel finds Sally (Sandra Bullock) a widow again as her second husband, Gary, has also passed away. Gillian is still single, trading any love in a relationship with unserious flings. The aunts are still there working spells for the townsfolk who, fortunately, still love them. Sally’s daughters, Kylie and Antonia are in college. One is in her final year of med school, the other an artist who has fallen in love. The rub, though, is that after Gary died, Sally worked a spell that made Kylie and Antonia forget that they were witches.

When one aunt dies, she bequeaths an old book containing the key to finally breaking the curse that kills all the men that the Owens women love to her sister. Kylie finds that she loves her boyfriend at the same time and he ends up in a coma from a car accident and she blames herself. She steals this old spell book thinking it will help her save him and it leads her to England. Sally and Gillian go after her and they meet Ian, a British man who knows all the history about their family.

I’ll leave the rest up to you, kind reader, to find out when you see the film. I’ve only read the first book these movies are based on and it was nice to see the film unfold without knowing the story. Sometimes, its best to just watch and let it unfold.

At its core, this film is about grief. Sally fills her life with mundane tasks, keeping busy so she doesn’t have to deal with the love she has lost and doesn’t have to experience losing it again. That grief is more profound when she realizes that taking away magic from her girls has taken away their ability to defend and protect themselves, and taken away their autonomy when it comes to how to fall in love. Denying the power in herself also made part of her disappear. She wasn’t her true self until she allowed her powers to do what they were meant to do.

This film is also about generational sisterhood. Frannie and Bridget. Sally and Gillian. Kylie and Antonia. My blood. Your blood. Our blood. Family reigns supreme when these women are working together, sharing their power and protecting each other. That is the emotional core of the film. I kept seeing remarks from other reviewers who were saying this film doesn’t justify its existence. I have no idea what film those reviewers watched, because I believe this has a stronger emotional core than the first film, and I LOVE the first film.

It is really Sally and Kylie who have the best arcs as each has to find within themselves the magic that went ignored for so long. Casting Joey King as Kylie was an act of genius. Her expressions are very emotional, her fear at losing her boyfriend palpable. I can say the same for casting Lee Pace as Ian. The chemistry between him and Sandra Bullock is perfection. Again, the cast carries the film even as a couple scenes occasionally linger a longer than maybe they should.

If you’re fan of how the first film used popular songs in its soundtrack, then you’ll love this too. And it uses a Stevie Nicks song which made my heart very happy. Sometimes, a movie doesn’t need to be deeply profound to be enjoyable. This one is exactly that. Good music. Good performances.

4 out of 5 stars.