Practical Magic

Practical Magic
Promotional poster
Directed by	Griffin Dunne
Screenplay by	Robin Swicord Akiva Goldsman Adam Brooks
Produced by	Denise Di Novi
Starring	Sandra Bullock Nicole Kidman Stockard Channing Dianne Wiest
Cinematography	Andrew Dunn
Edited by	Elizabeth King
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Production company	Village Roadshow Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	October 16, 1998 (1998-10-16)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$75,000,000
Box office	$68,336,997

Practical Magic is a 1998 American 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.

Plot

Witchcraft has been passed down through generations to the Owens women. Two descendants, Frances and Jet live with their orphaned nieces Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally (Sandra Bullock) in Maria's Island, Massachusetts. The Owens family has a curse: 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 due to heartbreak. Sally is the more gifted of the two while Gillian's talents are more in charm and persuasion. After witnessing their aunts cast a spell on a man for a woman who seems obsessed with having his love, Gillian decides to fall in love and Sally casts a true love spell to protect herself.

As adults, Gillian runs away to California, but not before the sisters cast an oath to each other using blood from both of their hands. Lonely without Gillian, Sally meets an apple salesman, Michael; they marry and eventually having two daughters, Kylie and Antonia. Three years later, Michael falls victim to the curse and dies when a truck hits him, Sally and her daughters return to the Owens home to live with the aunts. Sally finds out the aunts cast a spell so she could fall in love. Sally swears off magic because the magical curses have ruined her life, and vows that her daughters will not do magic.

Meanwhile, Gillian begins a relationship with Jimmy Angelov. Meanwhile, Sally is mourning and refuses to leave her bed. Gillian feels that Sally needs her and drugs Jimmy to go visit her. Sally tells Gillian everything that she feels and Gillian in turn tells her about Jimmy. During this time, Sally and Michael opened their own botanical shop, Verbena. Kylie and Antonia visit their mother's shop and get into an altercation, but Sally stops them.

When Jimmy becomes abusive, Gillian returns to Sally, but Jimmy kidnaps both of them. Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila to knock him out, but inadvertently kills him. The sisters drive back to their aunts' house and attempt to resurrect him using the forbidden spell from their aunts' book of spells. His body becomes alive and Jimmy immediately attempts to kill Gillian, but Sally kills him again, and the sisters bury his body in the garden of the Owens home. Local state investigator Gary Hallett searches for Jimmy and deduces that Sally is the killer. Gillian has Kylie and Antonia create a potion that will banish Gary, but the plan fails. Eventually, Sally has Gary record her testimony. Again, Sally sees the letter she had once written Gillian, and realizes he must have read it more times than he had let on. Unable to deny their feelings for each other, they kiss passionately. Looking into his eyes, Sally sees that he has one green eye, one blue. Afraid of going any further, and realizing that the only reason he was there was the spell she had cast long ago, Sally leaves.

Sally finds that Jimmy's spirit has possessed Gillian's body. Gary, who had followed her, sees Jimmy's spirit emerge. Jimmy attempts to grab Gary's heart, but his star-shaped badge saves him and temporarily exiles the spirit. Later, Sally tells Gary of her spell, saying that the only reason he's here is because of that spell and the feelings they have for each other aren't real. Gary replies that curses are only true if you believe in them and he doesn't. He also says that he wished for her, too. He decides to leave town without arresting Sally.

Jimmy possesses Gillian again and attempts to kill Sally. Realizing that a coven needs to be formed of 9 women to use witchcraft against Jimmy, Frances and Jet return. Sally realizes she must embrace magic to save her sister. She is also forced to ask the aid of townswomen who had feared the sisters. The women come, out of curiosity and a desire to help. The exorcism is a success and 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, while clasping their hands to mix each other's blood once more. The spell is lifted and Gillian returns.

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

Cast

• Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens, a witch who becomes widowed after the Owens’ curse kills her husband.
• Nicole Kidman as Gillian Owens, sister of Sally, who grows bored with small town life and becomes the victim of an abusive relationship.
• Stockard Channing as Aunt Frances Owens, aunt of Sally and Gillian, who tends to be more aloof and fun-loving She also loves to meddle in people's love lives.
• Dianne Wiest as Aunt Bridget 'Jet' Owens, aunt of Sally and Gillian, who tends to be more tenderhearted and quiet.
• Caprice Benedetti as Maria Owens, matriarch of the Owens clan.
• Goran Višnjić as James 'Jimmy' Angelov, boyfriend of Gillian, who becomes abusive and kidnaps the sisters.
• Aidan Quinn as Officer Gary Hallet, a policeman who investigates Sally and Gillian in the murder and falls in love with Sally.
• Evan Rachel Wood as Kylie Owens, daughter of Sally Owens, who lives with her mom and aunts after the death her father, Michael Owens. she looks and acts a lot like her Aunt Gillian.
• Alexandra Artrip as Antonia Owens, daughter of Sally Owens, who lives with her mom and aunts after the death her father, Michael Owens.
• Mark Feuerstein as Michael, husband of Sally Owens, and father of Kylie and Antonia Owens. He is a victim of the "Owens Curse", which resulted in his death.
• Lora Anne Criswell as young Gillian Owens.
• Camilla Belle as young Sally Owens.
• Chloe Webb as Carla.
• Martha Gehman as Patty.

Production

Some of the movie was filmed on an artificial set in California. Producers said the house was a big part of the depiction of the Owens' culture, so they knew they had to build a house to accurately depict this. They built it on San Juan Island, Washington. They brought much of the set from California and placed it inside the house, but it still took almost a year to perfect the image of the house and the interior. The house used is owned by the Sundstrom Family and is located on San Juan Valley Road, San Juan Island. They built a replica of the outside of the house on the west side of San Juan Island so that it looked like the house was on the waterfront, but in actuality it is in the valley. They built the house in San Juan County Park but since the house was built only for this filming, it was torn down after the movie was released.

According to Bullock in the film commentary, in 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 also believes that the supernatural elements of the house started to affect them; the cast and crew claim to have heard ghost noises while filming the coven scene at the end of the movie.

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 be in the movie as townsfolk.

Music

Untitled

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 songs "If You Ever Did Believe" and a new recording of her song "Crystal".

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

Reception

Box Office

Total US Gross $46,850,558

International Gross $21,486,439

Worldwide Gross $68,336,997

Critic Reviews

The movie received mixed reviews, but most reviews claimed unsatisfying results. Although some critics enjoyed the depiction of magic and romance, others believed the movie was completely different from the novels, and that the description of witchcraft was practically nonexistent.

Awards

In 1999 the movie was nominated for the American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress. That same year it was also nominated twice for the Blockbuster Entertainment Award and won one of the awards for Favorite Supporting Actress (Stockard Channing). It was lastly nominated for the Young Artist Award for Camilla Belle and Evan Rachel Wood.

Television series

Warner Bros. and ABC Family began developing a reboot of Practical Magic as a television series in October 2010.

Differences from the novel

• Sally lives with her husband Michael in the aunts' home until he dies. She then moves to New York to raise her children.
• Gillian does not show up until Sally's children are 16 and 13 (they are much younger in the film)
• Jimmy Angelov (Jimmy Hawkins in the book) is already dead in Gillian's car when she arrives at Sally's. Sally never meets him and she is not responsible for his death.
• Jimmy's death is accidental: Gillian begins slipping nightshade into his drinks so he will stop beating her at night. She believes it accumulated in his blood and he died spontaneously. In the film, Sally poisons him while he holds them hostage on the road.
• The aunts virtually disappear from the book until the end when they return to get rid of Jimmy's ghost.
• The book delves in-depth into the lives of the teenage sisters Antonia and Kylie and their up and down relationship.
• Gary Hallet plays a minor role in the book. He is not, however, a manifestation of a spell by Sally to never fall in love (as in the film).
• Sally works for the school district, she does not own her own store.
• In the book, Gillian does not get possessed by Jimmy Hawkins. He simply wreaks havoc on Sally's house and taunts Kyle (who has psychic powers and can see him).
• Gillian meets a local biology teacher and marries him.

External links

• Practical Magic
• Practical Magic at IMDb
• Practical Magic at AllMovie
• Practical Magic at Rotten Tomatoes
• Practical Magic at Box Office Mojo