Practical Magic

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Practical Magic
Promotional one-sheet poster
Directed by	Griffin Dunne
Produced by	Denise Di Novi
Written by	Alice Hoffman (novel) Robin Swicord
Starring	Sandra Bullock Nicole Kidman Stockard Channing Dianne Wiest
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Andrew Dunn
Editing by	Elizabeth King
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 16, 1998 (USA)
Running time	103 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60,000,000
Gross revenue	$46,683,377^[1] (domestic)
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Practical Magic is a 1998 family 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 by Alice Hoffman. The original music score was composed by Alan Silvestri.

Tagline: There's a little witch in every woman.

1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Depiction of witches
5 Novel
6 Television spin-off
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot summary

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For more than 200 years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong in their town. It all began with their ancestor, Maria, who was accused of being a witch. The Craft has passed through every generation to sisters Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest), their nieces, Gillian (Kidman) and Sally (Bullock) and Sally's two daughters; the women in the family never give birth to boys. The Owens family is cursed: any man who falls in love with an Owens woman will die tragically. The women of the town are apprehensive of the Owens women and their lifestyle, viewing them as evil and connected to the Devil.

When Sally was a child, she so despaired of falling victim to the curse, she cast a spell that would protect her from ever falling in love. She chose nearly impossible traits in a man, confident she would never meet someone who would meet them perfectly. The grown-up Sally is desperate for a 'normal' life and gives up practicing magic. She falls in love with the produce merchant Michael, due to a spell cast by her aunts, and marries him, in spite of the curse. Sally truly falls in love with Michael. Sadly, yet not unexpectedly, Michael meets a tragic end, leaving Sally grieving and disillusioned with magic. She comes home to her aunts with her two daughters.

Gillian, impatient with life in a small town, moves away. She meets Jimmy (played by Goran Višnjić), who eventually turns abusive. Gillian calls Sally for help and when Sally arrives, Jimmy kidnaps them both. Sally puts belladonna, a poison, into Jimmy's tequila to knock him out, but uses too much and accidentally kills him. The panicked sisters attempt to resurrect him using a forbidden spell from their aunts' book of magic; a spell so dark the aunts refused to use it to bring back Sally's dead husband, fearing he would come back as something dark and unnatural; but as Gillian points out, Jimmy is already "dark and unnatural." The caveat holds true when Jimmy returns, as evil and cruel as ever. Sally is forced to kill Jimmy a second time, this time hitting him on the head with a frying pan.

Jimmy's soul is restless and soon begins to haunt the sisters. The aunts become suspicious and suspect something is amiss, but the sisters cannot bring themselves to confess performing such a dark spell. The aunts quietly leave the household, leaving Sally and Gillian a message to "clean up your own mess" but not before providing Sally's daughters with a protective charm to prevent any harm from befalling them. To add to the spiritual chaos, a Federal officer named Gary Hallett (Aidan Quinn) comes looking for Jimmy, as Jimmy is the main suspect for the disappearance of his last girlfriend; he found Sally's personal letter describing her heartbreaking loneliness addressed to Gillian at Jimmy's last hotel room and trace it to the Owens' home. Sally finds herself completely unable to lie to Officer Hallett and when she discovers he has one green eye and one blue, confesses that she cast a love spell when she was a young girl. They have undeniable chemistry, but realize that if they try to be together, their doubts about the other's true feelings will eventually outweigh any love they have for each other. Hallett goes back to Arizona to continue his investigation.

Jimmy's haunting begins benignly, but soon progresses to outright aggression. First, he announces his presence with out-of-season red roses (that grow out his grave overnight) and an exponential increase of toads near the Owens' household. Finally he possesses Gillian. The aunts return to the house in time to see the worst possession yet; they decide that in order to dispel Jimmy's from a fragile Gillian, a coven needs to be formed (nine women, "twelve would be better"). Sally is forced to activate the school emergency phone tree, asking for the aid of women who have always feared her and excluded her. And the women come, both out of sheer curiosity and a desire to help.

The aunts begin the spell, but Jimmy's hold on Gillian's body is fierce, and Sally is forced to come up with another solution to remove Jimmy. In a moment of inspiration, Sally tempts Jimmy/Gillian to the edge of the coven circle (which has acted a forcefield) with a bottle of cheap tequila. When Jimmy/Gillian lunges for the drink, Sally is able to headlock her possessed sister, and slice her palm and her sisters to meld their blood together. The co-mingled blood and bond of sisterhood strong enough to expel Jimmy's spirit, but also breaks the 200-year-old curse of the Owens women--men who love them will no longer see their way to an early grave. Jimmy's soul is expelled so suddenly that he collapses into a pile of dust on the floor; to complete the spell, the coven has a jolly time sweeping him outside where his grave is covered with a vile smelling potion to dissolve his corpse and any sign that he ever existed.

Sally receives a letter from Officer Hallett that she and her sister are cleared of any suspicion or wrongdoing in the case of Jimmy Angelov; at the advice of her sister, she realizes that she and Officer Hallett truly belong together and magically summon him as he can hear her "calling from a mile away." He returns to the island immediately to be with Sally.

In a closing scene, the Owens women, daughters and all celebrate All Hallows' Eve by mounting their roof and jumping! They float lightly to the ground and are greeted by the townsfolk; The villagers welcome and embrace the Owens women and their Craft, as we see Sally finally accepting herself and her semi-normal, semi-fantastical future with Gary, her little girls, her sister and aunts, and lots of new friends.

[edit] Cast

Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens
Nicole Kidman as Gillian Owens
Stockard Channing as Aunt Frances Owens
Dianne Wiest as Aunt Bridget 'Jet' Owens
Goran Visnjic as James 'Jimmy' Angelov
Aidan Quinn as Officer Gary Hallet
Camilla Belle as young Sally Owens
Evan Rachel Wood as Kylie Owens
Alexandra Artrip as Antonia Owens
Mark Feuerstein as Michael

[edit] Production

Was filmed on Whidbey Island. Coupeville, Washington

According to Sandra Bullock in the film commentary, in the scene where the Owens women are drunk and slinging insults, the actresses actually got drunk, for they were drinking some very bad tequila that Nicole Kidman brought.

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.

[edit] Depiction of witches

The film's fictional depiction of witchcraft features supernatural elements tied closely to biological lineage, as the Craft is handed down each generation of Owens women. Other modern depictions of witches have also used such an interpretation of magic being hereditary (such as Charmed and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch). The film's depiction also openly casts aside the idea of the Devil being associated with the Craft.

At the end of the film, once all the Owens women have "come out" to the village as witches, they dress up in black robes and red-and-white striped stockings, similar to those worn by the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz.

[edit] Novel

The film differs from the original novel in several ways, including the flowers growing over Jimmy's grave (lilacs), the birth order of Sally's daughters (Antonia is the older daughter and in the book they are also teenagers by the end), and the fact that Sally actually rejected magic very early on in life due to a humiliation in school; Michael's death cemented this, rather than caused it. Other differences include:

Jimmy is also not foreign at all, although the cowboy obsession was still a factor. His personality in the movie was actually changed to allow Goran Visnjic to take the role.
The fate of the lovesick woman the Aunts help is also recurrent in the novel, a reminder to "be careful what you wish for".
The Aunts, while not neglectful, are not as warm and loving as they are in the movie and delight in using their talents for the village women, although the caution of watching what you wish for is always there.
Jimmy's death is attributed, not to the belladonna poisoning, but to possible alcohol poisoning and he died at a rest stop. Although him striking Gillian is not a direct factor in his death, he is depicted as being something of a sadist to begin with. His ring is also not a skull, but a cactus and a snake.