Practical Magic (1998)

Directed by Griffin Dunne. Starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing, Aidan Quinn, Goran Visnjic, Alexandra Artrip, Evan Rachel Wood, Margo Martindale, Chloe Webb, Mark Feuerstein, Lucinda Jenney, Martha Gehman. [PG-13]

Bullock and Kidman play sisters (sure), descendants of a Massachusetts witch who cursed her own family by dooming any man who loves a woman in her bloodline (considering that there have been generations of her clan for over three hundred years, either it must be a slow-acting curse or these are the most fertile women in New England). That curse rears its ugly head when the father of Bullock’s daughters gets clobbered by a truck and Kidman’s abusive beau (Visnjic) gets clobbered in self defense. With a body to dispose of—and the vengeful spirit of the deceased wreaking havoc on the sisters—it’s not long before an investigator (Quinn) shows up to look into the man’s disappearance, and Bullock fears for his safety when attraction smolders between them. Unfocused and undisciplined hybrid of the supernatural and the soporific treats witchcraft as a real thing while turning it into goofy kitsch; jarring changes in plot and tone allow for spousal murder and exorcism to coexist with undercooked romance and a borderline-requisite “dance around the kitchen table” scene set to a novelty song. Wiest and Channing play the sisters’ witchy aunts, and they might have helped ease the burden of the ludicrous plotting if the writing wasn’t so bad…but it is, so they don’t. Based on a book from Alice Hoffman.

34/100