There's a little witch in everyone (Practical Magic (DVD))

Member Name: linzeelou

Product:	Practical Magic (DVD)
Date:	27/08/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great acting and lovely story

Disadvantages: Sandra Bullock was a bit of a let done

Practical Magic is a family fantasy film that was released in 1998 and was based on the book of the same name by Alice Hoffman. It is rated 12 due to some minor violence, some fantasy horror and a few uses of bad language. Practical Magic is 100 minutes long.

Plot
The Owens family are witches and the Craft has been passed down for generations but so has a curse. If any Owens woman finds true love with a man, he will die tragically and that is exactly what happened to sisters, Gillian and Sally's father. As a child, Sally put a spell on herself that the man she will fall in love with will have a lot of strange traits, thinking that this man will never exist.

The sisters have always been close so when Gillian's boyfriend starts causing her trouble, she calls Sally for help. The girls accidentally kill him and when they both return home, the police come calling.

At the same time, Gillian and Sally's aunts have cast a spell so that Sally will find true love so that her and her two daughters can finally be happy again but will it all end in sadness and heartbreak again?

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

Special Features
- Interactive menus
- Scene Access
- Making Magic
- Casting the spell
- TV Spot
- Commentary from various people

My Opinion
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I first saw this film. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman aren't two actresses that I would ever have thought to put together in a film but they worked really well as a team and as sisters.

Nicole Kidman is quite well known for playing romantic roles and normally plays some boring characters for me but I think this role was something really different for her. I loved her character, Gillian because she was really fun and didn't care what anyone else thought of her. It was very entertaining to see her play someone different and it really bumped her up in my list of favourite actresses after this film.

Sandra Bullock is very well known for playing the nice girl in Rom-coms and I thought she was the same in Practical Magic. Her character, Sally, tried to something different but failed in my eyes. I thought Sally was quite boring compared to Gillian and didn't bring the charisma to the role that Nicole Kidman did. She was alright, but she wasn't fantastic.

The two aunts, played by Dianne West and Stockard Channing were the best parts of this film. Much like Sally and Gillian's characters, Aunt Frances and Jet have a great sisterly love for each other and their nieces. As witches should be, they were both funny and quite weird and eccentric.

There weren't a lot of special effects considering this is a fantasy film but what there was, was excellent. I think it was the little touches that made this film so good, especially when the witches are casting some spells and having fun around the cauldron. None of the spells were particularly scary or harmful and it was mostly just a bit of fun (and laziness sometimes). I think if I were a witch, I wouldn't bother using my hands to use cutlery if I didn't have to.

Practical Magic is quite slushy most of the time but it has some nice twists in the story. I really liked the fact that the towns people were very sceptical about witches and it linked in well with the story of Sally and Gillian's mother. This film does appeal mostly to women because of the amount of romance and niceness and I can't see too many men liking it.

Summary: Wonderful family film