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Practical Magic

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Wikipedia article




'Practical Magic' is a 1998 American fantasy romantic drama film based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman. The film was directed by Griffin Dunne and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Aidan Quinn, and Goran Vinji.

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 were taught the uses of practical magic as they grew up. As adults, Sally and Gillian must use their magic to destroy an evil spirit before it kills them.

The film is considered a cult classic.

Plot





In a small Massachusetts town, the Owens women have been shunned for over 300 years, since their ancestor Maria Owens used witchcraft to survive her execution. Heartbroken after the father of her unborn child abandoned her, Maria cast a spell to prevent herself from falling in love again. It became a curse upon her descendants, causing untimely death to any man an Owens woman loves.

Young sisters Gillian and Sally Owens are taken in by their aunts Frances and Jet, after left orphans due to the curse. The town's schoolchildren bully them. Watching their aunts cast a love spell for a woman obsessed with a married man, Sally casts one on herself to ensure she will only fall in love with a man with incredibly specific traits, hoping to never fall in love.

Meanwhile Gillian, also witnessing the incident, cannot wait to fall in love. After high school, she elopes with her boyfriend to Los Angeles to get away from their family. Before departing, she and Sally make a blood pact to always be there for one another.

Gillian spends the next decade moving from man to man across the country, while back home, Sally longs for acceptance and a normal life. Meeting and marrying Michael, a local man, they have two daughters, Kylie and Antonia. Sally opens an herbal skincare shop and they are accepted by the town. Michael dies suddenly when hit by a truck, so Sally and her daughters move in with the aunts. Discovering they had secretly cast a love spell on her so she could marry and be happy, Sally insists they never teach her daughters magic.

Gillian calls Sally in the middle of the night from Arizona, asking for help as she has become involved with the abusive Jimmy Angelov. The aunts take Kylie and Antonia to a moon festival for a few days while Sally flies to Arizona.

When Sally arrives to get her sister, Jimmy takes Gillian hostage in his car, forcing her to drive at gunpoint. Sally puts Gillian's belladonna into Jimmy's tequila to sedate him, but accidentally kills him. To avoid murder charges, they try to resurrect him using a forbidden spell at their aunts', he revives, attacking Gillian. Sally kills him again, and they bury him in the backyard.

The next day, the aunts return with the girls and happily reunite with Gillian. The four women celebrate until the aunts sense danger. As Sally and Gillian won't admit what's going on, the aunts leave.

State investigator Gary Hallett arrives from Tucson, Arizona in search of Jimmy after acquiring a letter Sally had written addressed to their apartment. Hoping to apprehend Jimmy, a serial killer, but the sisters deny knowing anything, and he leaves. The next day Gary asks around town about the Owenses, frustrating Sally so she invites him to return for a more accurate impression.

Finding Jimmy's ring in their garden, he suspects their guilt and leaves. Sally breaks down, intending to confess everything to Gary at his hotel. Unable to deny their attraction, they kiss, but she pulls away when realizing he is the impossible man from her childhood love spell.

Returning home, Sally discovers Jimmy's spirit has possessed Gillian's body. Gary senses he must follow Sally and sees his spirit materialize as an apparition. Jimmy attempts to possess him, only to be dissipated by his silver badge. Sally explains to Gary she had to kill him in self-defense. She then tells him he was drawn to her because of her love spell, so their feelings are not genuine. He tells her he wished for her too as a young boy, and he returns to Tucson.

Jimmy possesses Gillian again, attempting to kill Sally just as Frances and Jet return. Sally, realizing she must use magic to save her sister, requests the aid of several townswomen to form a coven to exorcise him. Guided by the aunts, they exile his spirit permanently, while Sally and Gillian's bond simultaneously breaks the Owens curse. Gary notifies Sally he's closed Jimmy's case as accidental death, and he returns to be with her. The Owens women are finally fully embraced by the community as witches.

Cast



* Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens, a witch who becomes widowed after the Owens curse kills her husband. She abandons magic and doesn't allow her daughters to practice it.

** Camilla Belle as young Sally Owens

* Nicole Kidman as Gillian Owens, Sally's free-spirited sister who embraces her heritage, leaves their small town and becomes the victim of an abusive relationship.

** Lora Anne Criswell as young Gillian Owens

* Goran Visnjic as James "Jimmy" Angelov, Gillian's lover. Originally from Bulgaria, he's an abusive alcoholic with a cowboy style who kidnaps the sisters, and is killed by them, twice, in self-defense.

* Stockard Channing as Frances Owens, aunt of Sally and Gillian, who tends to be frank and assertive.

* Dianne Wiest as Bridget 'Jet' Owens, aunt of Sally and Gillian, who is kind and gentle.

* Aidan Quinn as Investigator Gary Hallet, from Tucson, Arizona, who questions Sally and Gillian in the disappearance of Jimmy Angelov and falls in love with Sally.

* Caprice Benedetti as Maria Owens, the first witch in the Owens family and the one who casts the spell that curses all her descendants.

* Evan Rachel Wood as Kylie Owens, Sally's elder daughter, who lives with her mother and the aunts after the death of her father, Michael. She looks and acts like Gillian.

* Alexandra Artrip as Antonia Owens, Sally's younger daughter, who also lives with her mother and the aunts after the death of her father. She has dark hair and a spunky personality.

* Mark Feuerstein as Michael, Sally Owens' husband and the late father of Kylie and Antonia Owens. He is a victim of his wife's family curse, which results in his untimely death when their daughters are young.

* Peter Shaw as Jack, Sally and Gillian's father, who died from the Owens curse when they were children.

* Caralyn Kozlowski as Regina Owens, Sally and Gillian's mother, who committed suicide after losing her husband to the Owens curse.

* Chloe Webb as Carla, a good friend of Sally's, who works at her shop.

* Lucinda Jenney as Sara, one of the town women, who initially fears the Owens family but later responds to Sally's call for help.

* Margo Martindale as Linda Bennett, another friend of Sally's who also works at her shop.

* Martha Gehman as Patty, one of the town women who responds to Sally's call for help.

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.

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 to the movie 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 19802001', 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.



; Track listing

# "If You Ever Did Believe" Stevie Nicks

# "This Kiss" Faith Hill

# "Got to Give It Up (Pt.1)" Marvin Gaye

# "Is This Real?" Lisa Hall

# "Black Eyed Dog" Nick Drake

# "A Case of You" Joni Mitchell

# "Nowhere and Everywhere" Michelle Lewis

# "Always on My Mind" Elvis Presley

# "Everywhere" Bran Van 3000

# "Coconut" Harry Nilsson

# "Crystal" Stevie Nicks

# "Practical Magic" Alan Silvestri / "Convening the Coven" The Michael Nyman Orchestra

# "Amas Veritas" Alan Silvestri / "Maria Owens" The Michael Nyman Orchestra

Reception



Box office

'Practical Magic' opened at #1 with $13.1 million in ticket sales. The film went on to gross $68.3 million worldwide, less than its $75 million production budget.

Critical reception

'Practical Magic' received poor reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 23% approval rating based on 96 reviews, with an average rating of 4.60/10. The site's consensus states: "'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." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100, gives a score of 46 based on reviews from 22 critics.

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' said that the film "doesn't seem sure what tone to adopt, veering uncertainly from horror to laughs to romance."

Accolades



In other media



In 2004, Warner Bros. and CBS produced 'Sudbury', a television pilot written by Becky Hartman Edwards and directed by Bryan Spicer starring Kim Delaney in the role played by Bullock in the film and Jeri Ryan in the role played by Kidman. The series, named for the Sudbury, Massachusetts location of the novel and film, was not picked up.

In 2010, Warner Bros. and ABC Family attempted to develop a prequel television series.

See also



* List of ghost films

References




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