About the film (courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures):
Return to a world steeped in moonlit mischief and powerful ancestral magic, as the Owens sisters (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman) must confront the dark curse that threatens to unravel their family once and for all in a must-see cinematic event of fun, magic and mayhem.
A generational tale of witchcraft, Practical Magic 2 picks up twenty-five years after the original left off. Directed by Susanne Bier, this film entices the crowd and ropes its audience in for the majority of its two hour and ten minute run time. It manages to cover a lot of ground story wise while only coming up short on a couple of its more loose threads.
Practical Magic 2 centers around the original Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) and their bout with the infamous curse that has plagued their family for more than ten generations. The curse dooms any man who falls in love with an Owens woman to an untimely demise. The most recent example? One of Sally’s daughters, Kylie (Joey King), falling in love with Gideon (Xolo Maridueña) right before tragedy strikes.
Driven by grief, Kylie goes on a mission to undo a burden that she didn’t know she bore. Leaving behind her sister, Antonia (Maisie Williams), to watch over her stricken suitors, she is pushed to depths she didn’t know she had and drawn into a legacy she was unaware of. However, her abrupt departure does not go unnoticed, and both her mother and her aunt Gillian set out after her, eager to bring her home before further destruction unfolds. This is where Practical Magic 2 introduces its cloaked in mystery supporting character, Professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace). Ian is a seer whom the older sisters seek out to aid in their rescue mission, but all is not what it seems for the British accomplice.
Enough praise cannot be given to the work that the cast put into bringing these characters to life and the chemistry that each of them share on screen. Each member elegantly plays their part in a story that only toward the end seems to bite off more than it can proverbially chew. While Practical Magic 2 excels at creating wholesome family moments and scenes that will tug at one’s heartstrings, the third act leaves a bit to be desired.
Along with the seemingly rushed final encounter, the only major complaint that one could throw at the film is the underutilization of certain characters and story elements. For a movie centered around magic, practical demonstrations of spellcasting are relatively few and far between. While the visual effects are solid, magical elements do not appear as much as one might hope to see from a film titled after them. Practical Magic 2 also heavily favors one of Sally’s daughters while the other falls by the wayside lore wise, essentially getting shelved for a large portion of the movie in a role that could have made an already good story even more enthralling.
While the low points of Practical Magic 2 are noticeable, they are brief and outweighed by moments that will make an audience want to laugh or cry right along with the characters. Everything from the uplifting music to the warmth of the lighting in particular scenes helps recapture the nostalgic feeling of the first film, all while delivering a strong standalone story that leaves plenty of room for another chapter.
Practical Magic 2 hopes to deliver some much needed magic to theaters everywhere starting Thursday, September 10th when it makes its theatrical debut.
