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WIKIPEDIA: Practical Magic is a 1998 American fantasy romantic comedy drama film based on the 1995 novel by Alice Hoffman. The film was directed by Griffin Dunne and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing and Aidan Quinn. Bullock and Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, descended from a long line of witches. Raised by their aunts after their parents' death from a family curse, the sisters are taught the uses of practical magic as they grow up. Years later, they must use their magic to destroy the evil spirit of Gillian's abusive boyfriend before it kills them.
IMDb SYNOPSIS: "Two witch sisters, raised by their eccentric aunts in a small town, face closed-minded prejudice and a curse which threatens to prevent them ever finding lasting love."
IMDb STORYLINE: "Sisters Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) have a special bond with each other despite being different in personality and outlook. Having grown up with their spinster Aunt Frances (Stockard Channing) and Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest) in the long time Owens family house on an island off the coast of Massachusetts following the death of their father and then their mother, they are the latest in a long line of witches. Rumors of the Owens women being witches have existed for generations in the small close-minded town in which they live, despite there being no hard evidence. The Owens women are also under a curse that any man with who they fall in love is doomed."
"With this experience, extroverted Gillian decides to leave the island to live life to the fullest, in the process, falling for Jimmy Angelov (Goran Visnjic), a Bulgarian who grew up near Transylvania. More introspective Sally, who has sworn off the use of magic except in its most practical sense, has taken measures not to fall in love because of the curse, but ends up falling for and marrying Michael (Mark Feuerstein), a local merchant, the two who end up having two daughters of their own. The curse works its way into Gillian's and Sally's lives in different ways. The outcomes of the curse on their collective lives become more complicated with the arrival into town of Tuscon Police Detective Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn), whose arrival is not by accident and involves more than just his stated professional purpose." —Huggo
Practical Magic was released by Warner Bros. on October 16, 1998, and grossed $94.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $60-75 million. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who found the film's combination of different genres, including supernatural fantasy, domestic abuse drama, romantic comedy, and crime procedural, to be jarring. It has since gained a cult following. A sequel, Practical Magic 2, is scheduled to be released on September 10, 2026.
PRODUCTION: Practical Magic was filmed in part on an artificial set in California. Because the film's producers decided the house was a big part of the depiction of the Owens culture, a house to accurately represent that vision was built on San Juan Island in the state of Washington. While much of the set from California was brought to that location and placed inside the house, it took nearly a year to perfect the image of the house and the interior. The house, actually only a shell with nothing inside, was built only for this filming and was torn down after filming was completed. The small town scenes were filmed in downtown Coupeville, Washington, a Victorian-era seaside port town located on the south side of Penn Cove on Whidbey Island. Nicole Kidman's work on Practical Magic and her ex-husband Tom Cruise's work on Mission: Impossible 2 were respectively delayed due to production of Eyes Wide Shut taking much longer than expected.
The film's production design was led by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of the design studio Roman and Williams. They created the film’s richly detailed sets, including the Owens family home, and designed many of the props by hand. According to Standefer and Alesch, they also designed the film’s distinctive spellbook prop, which features original hand-drawn illustrations by Alesch. Standefer has stated, “Stephen and I devoted ourselves to that. We made every little thing in the film, down to the tincture jars and pressed flowers,” adding that Alesch “did incredible etchings of plants that you can see all around the dining room.”
Director Griffin Dunne said he originally had a darker vision for the film. The scene with Sally and Gilly inserting needles into Jimmy was supposed to be much more disturbing and the domestic violence plot line was more intense, but the studio cut the darker material. He expressed interest in a director's cut.
According to Sandra Bullock in the DVD commentary, while filming the scene where the Owens women are drunk and slinging insults, the actresses actually got drunk on very bad tequila brought by Kidman.
The cast further stated in the film's commentary that they felt supernatural elements of the house started to affect them. Both the cast and crew claimed they heard supernatural noises while filming the coven scene at the end of the film. For the final scene with all of the townspeople at the Owens home, the entire population of the town where filming took place was invited to show up in costume and appear as townsfolk.
MUSIC: Composer Michael Nyman's score for the film was abruptly replaced with music by Alan Silvestri for the theatrical release. This last-minute change resulted in the release of two soundtracks, although as primarily a compilation album only the two tracks of newly created material were changed. A 50-track demo (the last two tracks being "Convening the Coven" and "Maria Owens") of Nyman's score has been circulating among fans as a bootleg. The complete Nyman score runs 62:30 and contains music that would later appear, in altered form, in Ravenous and The Actors, as well as a bit of his stepwise chord progression theme from Out of the Ruins/String Quartet No. 3/Carrington/The End of the Affair/The Claim. "Convening the Coven", though not "Maria Owens", was subsequently reissued on The Very Best of Michael Nyman: Film Music 1980–2001, and music that uses material related to this piece has not been used elsewhere. "Convening the Coven" became "City of Turin" on The Glare.
Singer Stevie Nicks headlined the soundtrack's published advertisements, promoting her song "If You Ever Did Believe" and a new recording of her song "Crystal", both featuring Sheryl Crow on back-up vocals.
Practical Magic (Music From The Motion Picture) | YouTube Playlist:CRITICAL RESPONSE: Practical Magic received negative reviews from critics upon release, who panned its inconsistent tone and script. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 30% based on 107 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Practical Magic's jarring tonal shifts sink what little potential its offbeat story may have – though Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock's chemistry makes a strong argument for future collaborations." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 46 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B− on an A+ to F scale.
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave Practical Magic a negative review, calling it "a witch comedy so slapdash, plodding, and muddled it seems to have had a hex put on it." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times spoke of the film's unsure tone, "veering uncertainly from horror to laughs to romance", and opined that the film "is too scary for children and too childish for adults".
Garth Stahl of the Hartford Courant was more positive, noting that women in dark comedy and depictions of sisterhood are rare in film. He wrote Practical Magic "has its flaws. Some scenes are weak, occasionally lines are a little muddled, and there is some plot underdevelopment. Yet it is daring and fun — a frolic for two charming actresses and a dapper film premise". He concluded "The main source of attraction is undeniably the enchanting and witty witchcraft. It is simultaneously what makes the Owen sisters outcasts and what makes them special. With a few very sharp scenes, including a jazzy dance sequence, 'Practical Magic' is worth [it]. It is a step toward allowing women to assert themselves in the genre of dark comedy. Now isn't that practical."
RELEASE: Practical Magic was released theatrically in the United States on October 16, 1998, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was released on VHS & DVD in the United States on February 16, 1999, by Warner Home Video. A new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was released on August 25, 2026, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
LEGACY: The film has acquired a cult following over the years. Writing about Practical Magic's legacy in 2018, David Sims of The Atlantic discussed how the film centers relationships between women through the Owens bloodline as well as in the final scene involving the town's women uniting to free Gillian from Jimmy's control. He described the film as a mainstream studio feature "that wove dark themes about gender and power into an ostensible crowd-pleasing comedy", qualities that made it unusual for its time and have contributed to its staying power.
SEQUEL: In June 2024, it was announced that a sequel was in development. Bullock and Kidman will return to produce the film with Di Novi and were in talks to star in it. Later that same month, Nicole Kidman confirmed that she and Sandra Bullock would reprise their roles in the sequel. Akiva Goldsman, who co-wrote the screenplay for the original film, would return to write the script. Griffin Dunne hinted that a woman will direct the sequel, while he will serve as an executive producer.
While specific plot details remain under wraps, the sequel will be based on Alice Hoffman's 2021 novel The Book of Magic, the fourth installment in her Practical Magic series. Although the timeline is still uncertain, in August 2024, producer Denise Di Novi is optimistic about beginning production next year. In January 2025, Susanne Bier was reportedly in talks to direct the sequel. In February 2025, Kidman mentioned that the sequel was "moving ahead rapidly". Three months later, it was announced that Bier would direct the film, which is scheduled for release on September 11, 2026.
In July 2025, it was announced Joey King and Maisie Williams had been cast as Sally's daughters. That same month, it was revealed Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest would reprise their roles as Frances and Jet, respectively; Lee Pace, Xolo Maridueña, and Solly McLeod were also cast in unknown roles. -read more at wikipedia.org...
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RELATED POST: What's on Tonight: PRACTICAL MAGIC (1998) Streaming on HBO MAX + Reviews — There's A Little Witch in Every Woman.
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