Does anyone have reverence for Griffin Dunne’s Practical Magic? Scratch that – did anyone actively ask for a sequel to Practical Magic? Because, as far as I’m concerned, Susanne Bier’s Practical Magic 2 has no genuine justification for existing. It’s a toothless, unfunny, dull “comedy” that proves the detractors of the original film right and will quickly evaporate from your mind even if you spent a laborious eternity attempting to connect with it. Bier and writers Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, and Kelly Marcel create some reverence for the original, but what actually made that movie special? As far as I’m concerned, Dunne’s adaptation of Alice Hoffman’s book of the same name was poorly received by critics and audiences alike, and developed a cult following without much fanfare.
Credit where credit is due, Bier employs an aesthetic that seems highly reminiscent of the comforting comedies of the 1990s, but she has no idea where to place – or move – her camera. The frames are oddly static, with little thought given to staging either the film’s more emotional beats or the action near the end, not even when it attempts to bathe in generic conventions. A few scenes show witches Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) communicating with an otherworldly entity through a spell book, and the sound design is so intricate and visceral that you wonder why Simon Duggan’s cinematography feels so lifeless and never matches the film’s aural design.
Bier is a highly talented filmmaker. She’s crafted dramas of raw, harrowing power with a thoughtful visual grammar. Brothers. After the Wedding. In a Better World. All of them are masterpieces. Practical Magic 2 marks her second foray into commercial entertainment following 2018’s Bird Box, but at least that film had a language, whereas her latest American venture does not. No single scene has a pulse or an imprint that would make a comedy like this shine and justify the sequel’s existence. I’m still trying to wrap my head around who Practical Magic 2 is for, because not even the most ardent defenders of Dunne’s original think this sequel is good!
Bier believes the pure star power of Bullock and Kidman is enough to draw people to the theater, and they certainly seem to have fun. I say seem, because you wouldn’t know it by simply watching them together in this. The writing is so inert that planks of wood might have more chemistry than two actors who still make compelling stuff long after the original’s release, but the way in which Bier films the Owens sisters is so unpleasant it almost borders on parody. You’d also think that, with the sequel’s scale opening up from Massachusetts to London, its aesthetic would change or feel much grander than the original’s intimate textures. However, Bier’s choices are so baffling that it almost feels as if you’re watching a fake movie instead of something with tangible cinematic weight.
Sally and Gillian travel to the United Kingdom after the former’s daughter, Kylie (Joey King), attempts to break the “curse” that results in everyone who falls in love with the Owens dying a horrible, agonizing death. This is what is currently happening with Kylie’s boyfriend, Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), who is in a coma after being brutally hit by a car while cycling, the day after he professed his love to her. After Jet (Dianne Wiest) and Franny (Stockard Channing) tell her that her latent powers hold the key to breaking the curse, Kylie is determined to make sure none of this bloodshed happens again.
This should be a breezy, easy-to-watch comedy. But Practical Magic 2 doesn’t know whether to be a laugh-out-loud comedy or a piece of fantasy cinema that embraces darker roots than the first film. Whenever Bier locks in and attempts to link the curse to frightful territories, the movie wakes up. But these scenes are so sparse that they don’t really matter in the larger scope of its 130-minute-long (!!!) sequel, whose comedy is the cinematic equivalent of punching dead air interminably. Not a single joke lands. Not a single scene with Sally or Gillian seems natural. None of the new characters feel tangible, except Xolo, but he’s in a coma for most of the runtime.
Well, there’s Lee Pace as Ian Wright, an academic fascinated by witchcraft who helps Sally and Gillian find Kylie after one of his former students (Solly McLeod) attempts to employ Kylie’s powers for his own nefarious gains. This could’ve felt urgent, but Bier builds up none of this and prefers her movie to be about a whole lot of nothing until it leads to a clumsy denouement with an antagonist we know nothing about, but we know he’s bad because he looks like a bad guy. That’s it. The story has no forward momentum because it spends so much time on details that don’t matter that we barely have time for what keeps us engaged.
And just when you think the movie has neatly wrapped up all of its plotlines, albeit rather clumsily, it goes on for another half-hour. It’s the movie that never ends, destined for no one, not even the fans of the original who might find some excitement in seeing Nicole Kidman reunite with Sandra Bullock. That will last five seconds once they realize that this sequel will do them no favors. Perhaps there’s an audience for Practical Magic 2, and maybe it will get reappraised as a cult classic later down the line. As of right now, though, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon…
Practical Magic 2 is now in theaters.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
You might also like…
‘Primetime’ Film Review: A Bone-Chilling Excavation of America’s Penchant for Sensationalism