You’d think after three hundred years they’d come up with a better rhyme…

With supernatural gifts and able to steal a man’s eye in a Puritan community, Maria Owens (Caprice Benedetti) finds herself exiled, abandoned, and pregnant, grieving enough to later cast a spell upon herself to never fall in love again — the start of a familial curse. Centuries afterward, the daughters of Maria’s ancestors are orphaned but welcomed in by their aunts, Frances and Jet (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest). As adults, Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) are inseparable as sisters but each having a magic all their own. While Gillian goes off into the world to wherever love takes her, Sally falls for island local Michael (Mark Feuerstein), welcoming two daughters into their lives before the curse asserts itself yet again. Returning to the island to comfort her heartbroken sister, Gillian’s current beau Jimmy Angelov (Goran Visnjic) doesn’t take kindly to sudden abandonment… nor has any clue about the fire he’s playing with.

Referred to occasionally as “the rotting meatloaf” from An American Werewolf In London (he got better), Griffin Dunne directed this witchy film via a screenplay by Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldsman, and Adam Brooks based on Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel. Fans of Victorian architecture, East Coast lighthouses, and wraparound porches will be fixated on the Owens family home inside and out, “both Gothic and welcoming, mysterious yet functional,” a character unto itself. The last time small-town witches made such a stir at the box office was eleven years earlier when the Devil stopped by Eastwick, and the director reportedly intended the film to be darker in tone (expressing interest in a director’s cut). With a sequel almost three decades later ready to start off spooky season, isn’t it time to revisit the island and say hi to the family again?

The chemistry between Bullock and Kidman overshadows every glitch and gripe one might make about this film, the story of sisters with unusual history and unusual power. While every witch isn’t historically a woman, this is a story filled with feminine energy and shared sisterhood (travelling pants not included). It’s lighthearted while dealing with death, secretive about things taboo, and welcoming once people get past their own hang-ups about others. The timeline feels compressed, squeezing out some details while abbreviating others, creating a jumble of disjointed highs and lows that doesn’t always add up coherently but still ends magically. The good gals win, the bad guy loses, and everyone is smiling and giddy before the lights come up in the theater… reportedly as requested by the studio to go softer than the original novel.

Witchcraft as presented in the film hints at both natural ability and actual craft. It’s all handled loosely enough so the details aren’t as important as the consequences, but it’s interesting the exact same thing can be said for the male characters throughout this production. When Michael exits stage left, it’s as if he no longer exists to either his wife or daughters (a noted change from the book), and he wasn’t a terrible person. When Aidan Quinn’s Gary Hallet arrives in the story, he’s mostly a point-of-view and another obstacle to overcome. This concentrates the focus on the Owens sisters and their story, but it feels hollow that, even where men are part of events, they still get noticeably glossed over… you know, the same way too many male-slanted films treat women? Oops, I’ve said too much!

Other observations aside, what’s truly bothersome is the relationship between the Owens family and the other islanders, with fluctuating opinions informed on where they are in the story. It’s believable that townsfolks publicly shun yet privately seek assistance from the local witches, but isn’t it bizarre that those very same folks show up publicly in costume on Halloween to watch “the show” all in good fun, regretting nothing about their behavior over the previous year? Just me then? Fine, okay, I’ll stop overthinking it and just enjoy.

Practical Magic is rated PG-13 for some violence, intense thematic elements, sensuality, and a worm with your name on it.

Three skull recommendation out of four