As the weather in New York finally turned toward autumn, I found myself with an unexpected pocket of free time and a longing for the unique kind of solitude that comes in a mostly empty movie theater on a Tuesday afternoon. There was a new violent epic that promised to offer big themes that would make good fodder for this column, along with a couple of international films that would take me out of my habitual patterns of thought. But I knew exactly what I wanted to see: Practical Magic 2 (directed by Susanne Bier). That I knew I would have to rewatch it very soon with my tween daughter did not deter me; nor did the fact that I could predict the basic arc of the movie without even watching the trailer. I was not disappointed in my choice.
The original Practical Magic (directed by Griffin Dunne in 1998) introduced audiences to the long line of Owens women, powerful witches who have been blamed for all manner of shenanigans over the centuries. For over 300 years, they have suffered the effects of a spell that boomeranged into a curse that dooms any man they love to imminent death. Most of the first movie follows the ill-fated love lives of the younger Owens sisters—Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman)—as they rely on and sometimes rebel against the wisdom of the aunts who raised them, Jet (Dianne Wiest) and Franny (Stockard Channing). The first movie ends with a new generation of Owens sisters (Sally’s children) and the hope that the curse has finally been lifted.
Alas, when the sequel begins, 25 years after the action of the first movie, we learn this is not the case. Twice-widowed, Sally has given up on love, while Gillian blows through casual flings like a conscientious tornado, careful never to touch down long enough to catch feelings. Sally’s daughters Antonia (Maisie Williams) and Kylie (Joey King) have been raised without any knowledge of their witchy powers or the curse. When Kylie falls in love, that repressed knowledge comes crashing through their lives, opening old wounds and a clear plot for what’s to come.
