Skip to main content

"Practical Magic" Review

Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, is all around a good movie-  entertaining and interesting, though not necessarily something I need to watch again. The plot revolves around two witch sisters named Sally and Gillian Owens; Sally never wants to fall in love, but for Gillian it’s a life goal. Unfortunately, their family is cursed so that any man who loves an Owens woman is doomed to die. Sally starts a family and tries to lead a normal life, but just as the curse forewarned, her husband is killed. Gillian, on the other hand, had been hopping from man to man before getting tangled with an abusive kidnapper. Sally tries to save Gillian but accidentally kills the boyfriend in the process, then resulting to a revival spell in order to avoid murder charges. The plot thickens as the boyfriend haunts them as a ghost and the sisters try and keep their spooky secret from the lead detective. Quite a story!
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s performances are bewitching, successfully playing compelling sisters. They're convincing, showing real sisterly love towards one another, and I enjoyed watching them act as a duo. The movie feels like a chick flick at times, getting sappy or cheesy, and then turns towards darker themes a bit too abruptly. I will say, though, that it is pretty comedic when a bunch of PTA moms get recruited to perform an exorcism. It’s a mixed bag of genres, but that keeps it a bit more unpredictable than it would have been otherwise.

Practical Magic puts a large emphasis on the stigma against witches in society and how the stereotype leads to Sally and Gillian being shunned in society for their powers. People fear what they cannot understand, so naturally they fear witchcraft. Even with society breathing down their necks, the sisters learn to own who they are, giving the movie a healthy dose of girl power. I love the more recent turn in cinema towards powerful, confident female leads. The Owens sisters hold their own, and even though the movie is about love, it doesn't deter them from being able to take care of themselves and be strong individuals. In fact, the love interest plays a pretty minor role.

Magical and witty, Practical Magic is a fun movie to watch on a lazy afternoon. The modern-take on witches brings a feeling of freshness to the film; the Owens sisters bridge the gap between the olden days of witchcraft and present day magic.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Johnny Mnemonic"

“Johnny Mnemonic,” by William Gibson, is a dystopian short story about a man named Johnny who acts as a living database, storing information for others. After a violent mix-up at a club, he and the girl who caused the death of his client run off and escape to Nighttown, where she and her partners take the information and end up battling in the ruinous town over the Floor. The storyline was a bit hard to follow, and I wasn’t always clear on what was happening or who the characters were. Parts of it felt random, and the chaotic vibe was difficult to unravel. Something that stuck with me, though, is that the scariest part of this short story wasn’t the blood or the augmented humans and dystopian ruins of society, but the empty shell that Johnny Mnemonic has made his mind. He collects information for others and spits it back out with no memory of what he said. Of course, at the end he decides to stop being a traveling flashdrive of a human being, but to live a life where your brain can...
Post a Comment
Read more

"The Fiction of Ideas," or How Changing One Part of the Human Race Changes The World

“The Fiction of Ideas” is an interesting topic; change one thing about the human race, and an entirely new world is created. Such a wide variety of stories can come from this subgenre, each taking wildly different paths. Two short stories I read that fall under this broad category are “The Drowned Giant” by J. G. Ballard and “Come To Venus Melancholy” by Thomas M. Disch (I read a third story, “And I Awoke And Found Me Here On The Cold Hill,” that falls under this genre which is discussed in the previous blog post). “The Drowned Giant” is quite short, but in its few pages it tells a unique story. In this tale, we see what happens when a group of miniature humans find a drowned man washed upon the shore. The townspeople proceed to not only examine the giant body but crawl over it, kids using the nose as a rock to climb and the arms as stairs. The casualness with which the people treat the body is almost disconcerting, as if it’s just a large collection of rocks. Then, the scientists ...
Post a Comment
Read more

"I Live With You" by Carol Emshwiller: the Captivating Capture of Identity

“Unsettling” is how I’d describe Carol Emshwiller’s short story “I Live With You,” although it is still captivating. It follows a shadow-like being who impersonates and sneaks into the house of a woman named Nora with intent to heavily mess with her life. At first, this doppelganger keeps their presence a secret, but as soon as suspicions arise, they decide to have a little fun. Moving things around, leaving out trash, stealing and replacing clothes, the doppelganger plagues Nora’s house like a ghost. In fact, the imposter even goes as as far as inviting a man over and trying to both hook up with him as well as get Nora some action. Of course, this plan turns sour quickly and the doppelganger leaves Nora, who has changed into a more confident and assertive woman because of her ordeal. “I Live With You” is intriguing and puts you on edge, and the concept really makes you think. I found it interesting how Nora tried to convince herself that nothing was going on, and when things got...
Post a Comment
Read more