REVIEW: ‘Practical Magic 2’ Is A Tired Story That’s Already Been Told

The Owens Sisters are back in Practical Magic 2. It’s been 28 years since Practical Magic was released. The first foray into the troubled lives of the Owens family witches centered on the curse that kept them from finding love. Practical Magic 2 says, “What if we take that curse and put it in the cauldron with the plot of Disney Channel’s Halloweentown?” The result, unsurprisingly, is that Practical Magic 2, directed by Susanne Bier, rehashes a story already told, using the same curse that blighted the family in the first film.

Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) thought she had broken the curse. She allowed herself to love the man of her dreams. She thought wrong. We learn in the opening scenes of Practical Magic 2 that Sally’s second husband has met the same fate as her first husband thanks to the anti-love curse put on her family by an ancestor in her long line of powerful witches.

She decides right then and there to erase the memory of magic in her children’s minds—a move not supported by her sister Gillian (Nicole Kidman). She raises them from there on out as if magic were not part of their family, but all of the women still discourage them from ever finding love.

Practical Magic 2 is a predictable re-tread.

When Aunt Jetty (Dianne Wiest), who is coming to the end of her life, comes across a magical book that can help break the curse, she gives it to her sister Franny (Stockard Channing) in hopes that the family could finally experience true love. The night of Jet’s funeral, Sally’s daughter Kylie (Joey King) proclaims her love for her boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), not knowing the consequences of such love.

When Gideon is struck by a car the next morning on his bicycle, a grieving Kylie learns the truth about her family and, in a moment of desperation, steals the book meant for Franny to find a way to break the curse. Kylie runs off on her own, but not far behind her are Sally and Gillian, with Franny and Sally’s other daughter, Antonia (Maisie Williams), staying behind to keep an eye on Gideon.

The problem is that the basic shell of this movie has already been told. In Halloweentown, a mother from a long line of powerful witches decides to raise her kids without magic. When the truth comes out, the mother has to chase her daughter and fight off an evil foe that got in her way. Even much of how Practical Magic 2’s basic storyline resolves feels like it came right off the pages of a Halloweentown script.

The legacy performances are charming, even with a bad script.

The problems don’t stop there. Practical Magic 2 tries to make it feel less obvious who the villain is. Maybe it’s Ian Wright (Lee Pace), or maybe it’s Tom Lockland (Solly McLeod). It’s really not the mystery the film wants the audience to believe it is, though. It’s obvious the exact moment the villain appears on screen that this person shouldn’t be trusted.

The biggest problem is that everything is so incredibly predictable. From the beginning of the film until the very end, nothing feels out of place or like a surprise. Some of that is good because it means there are a few emotional payoffs, but the moments that are good are few and far between and vastly overshadowed by the derivative and almost lazy nature of everything else.

The cast is trying their absolute best and doing wonders with what they’ve been given. They just really haven’t been given anything. Stockard Channing is the belle of the ball, reminding everyone that no matter how bad the script is, she’s still Stockard Channing. Dianne Wiest is not in Practical Magic 2 for very long, but every scene she’s in evokes a smile.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman have such great chemistry together. It’s like the last 28 years didn’t even happen. They fell right back into both sibling rivalry and sisterly love like they hadn’t lost any time at all.

Practical Magic 2 feels like Disney Channel with a few f-bombs thrown in.

The newcomers to the franchise, Joey King, Maisie Williams, and Xolo Maridueña, all do very well with what they were given, but Williams and Maridueña especially just don’t have anything to do. Gideon is in a hospital bed for 90 percent of the film, and his girlfriend’s sister, a neurosurgeon, is playing personal nurse to him with her Aunt Franny. It’s somewhat insulting that they took two extremely talented actors and gave them nothing to do for two hours.

Even the feel-good epilogue falls short. While it’s one of the better scenes in Practical Magic 2, it goes on for far too long and is nothing more than an attempt at evoking a sense of nostalgia. It’s almost as though those 15 minutes or so are all in service of midnight margaritas and a familiar closing shot.

Practical Magic 2 isn’t necessarily a terrible movie. There are some good moments and some great performers. Unfortunately, for everything that the film does right, it does way more wrong. The premise is predictable, relies on the same curse from the first film, and lacks any originality. Practical Magic 2 might be about the Owens family, but it just feels like Disney Channel with a few f-bombs thrown in.

Practical Magic 2 is in theaters now.