Practical Magic

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Practical Magic
Promotional one-sheet poster
Directed by	Griffin Dunne
Produced by	Denise Di Novi
Written by	Alice Hoffman (novel) Robin Swicord Akiva Goldsman Adam Brooks
Starring	Sandra Bullock Nicole Kidman Stockard Channing Dianne Wiest
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Andrew Dunn
Editing by	Elizabeth King
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 16, 1998 (USA)
Running time	103 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60,000,000
Gross revenue	$46,683,377[1] (domestic)

Practical Magic is a 1998 family fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witches who carry on a family legacy of witchcraft and tragedy. The film is based on a book of the same name by Alice Hoffman. The original music score was composed by Alan Silvestri. The rejected score by Michael Nyman also enjoys popularity.

[edit] Plot

The Owens women are witches in whom the Craft has been passed down through every generation into modern times. The story concerns sisters Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest), and their orphaned nieces Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally (Sandra Bullock). The Owens family is cursed: if an Owens woman finds true love with a man, he will die tragically, as was the case with the father of Gillian and Sally, whose death also brought on their mother's death "from a broken heart," which can be understood as suicide. As a child, Sally casts a true love spell to protect her. She dreams up a series of odd traits for the man of her dreams, confident no real man could ever be like the man in her spell, preventing her from ever falling in love.

The sisters grow up, and Gillian runs away as she is impatient with small town life. Packing her bags and leaving at night, they cast a binding oath to each other using blood from both of their hands and then mixing the bloods by clasping hands. Without Gillian around, Sally feels lonely and craves a normal life. Her aunts, wanting her to be happy, cast a spell that helps Sally fall in love with a man named Michael. Sally marries him and has two daughters, Kylie (Evan Rachel Wood) and Antonia (Alexandra Artrip). When Michael falls victim to the curse and dies, Sally and her daughters return to the Owens home to live with the aunts.

When Gillian's latest boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Višnjić) turns abusive, she calls Sally for help. Sally goes to collect Gillian, but Jimmy kidnaps both of them. Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila to knock him out, but she uses too much and accidentally kills him. The panicked sisters attempt to resurrect him using a forbidden spell from their aunts' book of spells. The spell works, but when Jimmy is revived, Sally is forced to kill him a second time to stop him from killing Gillian. The sisters bury his body in the Owens home garden, where they hope nobody will notice, but his spirit begins to haunt them.

A State Investigator named Gary Hallett (Aidan Quinn) arrives in town looking for Jimmy. Gillian prepares a banishment spell using the syrup from their table to get rid of Gary, but Sally's daughters thwart the spell when they notice that Gary fulfills a number of conditions of Sally's true love spell. Sally confesses that she killed Jimmy, and that she cast a spell to summon Gary to her. Gary has an encounter with Jimmy's ghost, and decides to leave town without arresting Sally.

Jimmy possesses Gillian, and the aunts decide that in order to dispel Jimmy, a coven needs to be formed (nine women, "twelve's better"). Sally is forced to ask the aid of townswomen who had feared and excluded her. The women come out of curiosity and a desire to help. The exorcism is a success due to the strong bond between the two sisters; Jimmy's spirit is dispelled and the 300-year-old curse of the Owens women is ended, when Sally repeats the spell that was mentioned as Gillian first left, by clasping their hands to mix each others blood once more. It brought Gillian back.

Sally receives a letter from Gary that she and her sister are cleared of any suspicion or wrongdoing in Jimmy's case. Gary eventually returns to the town to be with Sally. The Owens women, daughters and all celebrate All Hallows Eve dressed up in stereotypical witch costumes, but they are embraced and welcomed by the townsfolk.

[edit] Cast

• Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens
• Nicole Kidman as Gillian Owens
• Stockard Channing as Aunt Frances Owens
• Dianne Wiest as Aunt Bridget 'Jet' Owens
• Goran Visnjic as James 'Jimmy' Angelov
• Aidan Quinn as Officer Gary Hallet
• Camilla Belle as young Sally Owens
• Evan Rachel Wood as Kylie Owens
• Alexandra Artrip as Antonia Owens
• Mark Feuerstein as Michael

[edit] Production

Was filmed on Whidbey Island. Coupeville, Washington, San Juan Island, WA

According to Sandra Bullock in the film commentary, in the scene where the Owens women are drunk and slinging insults, the actresses actually got drunk, for they were drinking some very bad tequila that Nicole Kidman brought.

[edit] Music

Practical Magic
photo by Suzanne Tenner
Soundtrack by Various artists
Released	October 6, 1998 (original pressing)
Recorded	August 15-16, 1998, Abbey Road Studios (Michael Nyman tracks)
Genre	Soundtrack, Pop, Minimalism, Orchestral
Length	56:58 (Nyman pressing)
Language	English
Label	Reprise/WEA
Producer	Danny Bramson, Sandra Bullock
Michael Nyman chronology
Strong on Oaks, Strong on the Causes of Oaks 1998 Practical Magic 1998 Ravenous 1999
Alan Silvestri chronology
The Parent Trap 1998 Practical Magic 1998 Stuart Little 1999

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 1980-2001, and music that uses material related to this piece has not been used elsewhere.

Singer Stevie Nicks headlined the soundtrack's published advertisements, promoting her singles "If You Ever Did Believe" and her remake of her song "Crystal" from the 1975 Fleetwood Mac white album on which she first appeared with the band. (Which originally appeared on the album "Buckingham-Nicks", the first album ever recorded by Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham shortly before their joining Fleetwood Mac.) Both original recordings of "Crystal" before the Practical Magic soundtrack were recorded with Buckingham performing the vocals, although the song was written by Nicks.

[edit] Track listing

1. If You Ever Did Believe - Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow
2. This Kiss - Faith Hill
3. Got To Give It Up (Pt.1) - Marvin Gaye
4. Is This Real? - Lisa Hall
5. Black Eyed Dog - Nick Drake
6. A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell
7. Nowhere And Everywhere - Michelle Lewis
8. Always On My Mind - Elvis Presley
9. Everywhere - Bran Van 3000
10. Coconut - Harry Nilsson
11. Crystal - Stevie Nicks
12. Practical Magic - Alan Silvestri / Convening the Coven - The Michael Nyman Orchestra
13. Amas Veritas - Alan Silvestri / Maria Owens - The Michael Nyman Orchestra

[edit] Depiction of witches

The film's witchcraft is tied closely to biological lineage. Other modern depictions of witches have also depicted magic as hereditary, including Bewitched, Charmed and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. The film also states that "there's no devil in the craft."

At the end of the film, once all the Owens women have "come out" to the village as witches, they dress up in black robes and red-and-white striped stockings, similar to those worn by the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz.

[edit] Novel

The film differs from the original novel in several ways, including the flowers growing over Jimmy's grave (lilacs), the birth order of Sally's daughters (Antonia is the older daughter and in the book they are also teenagers by the end), and the fact that Sally actually rejected magic very early on in life due to a humiliation in school; Michael's death cemented this, rather than caused it. Other differences include:

• Jimmy is also not foreign at all, although the cowboy obsession was still a factor. His personality in the movie was actually changed to allow Goran Visnjic to take the role.
• The fate of the lovesick woman the Aunts help is also recurrent in the novel, a reminder to "be careful what you wish for".
• The Aunts, while not neglectful, are not as warm and loving as they are in the movie and delight in using their talents for the village women, although the caution of watching what you wish for is always there.
• Jimmy's death is attributed, not to the belladonna poisoning, but to possible alcohol poisoning and he died at a rest stop. Although him striking Jillian is not a direct factor in his death, he is depicted as being something of a sadist to begin with. His ring is also not a skull, but a cactus and a snake.

[edit] Television spin-off

A television pilot based on the film, titled Sudbury was filmed for CBS in 2003. It starred Kim Delaney, Jeri Ryan, Kat Dennings, Gage Golightly, Dixie Carter, Shirley Knight and Esai Morales. Sandra Bullock served as executive producer. The pilot was not picked up.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Practical Magic

• Official website
• Practical Magic at the Internet Movie Database
• Practical Magic at Allmovie
• Practical Magic at Rotten Tomatoes
• Practical Magic at Box Office Mojo