Movie: Practical Magic 2

You don’t need to have watched the original Practical Magic movie to understand the sequel Practical Magic 2.

However, fans of the 1998 original may enjoy seeing what’s happened to their favourite characters.

For those of us who haven’t seen the original you quickly get the gist of the story.

Both movies tell of sisters Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) and Gilly Owens (Nicole Kidman), American witches who, due to a long-standing family curse, are responsible for the death of any man who loves them.

The latest death is Sally’s husband Gary – we know this as she is laying flowers on his grave at the start of Practical Magic 2!

Determined to protect her two daughters from such a terrible curse she ensures they forget they are witches. She also renounces her magic and asks Gilly to promise to do the same – a promise Gilly ignores.

When we catch up with Sally many years later she’s a librarian who is determined to never fall in love again, and her two daughters, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams) are grown women. Gilly too hasn’t fallen in love but seems to have a fun time dating and partying although what else she does is never revealed.

Disaster occurs when Kylie falls in love with fellow student Gideon (Xolo Maridueña). As a result of the curse he’s hit by a car and is critically ill in a coma.

On relaying the news of his accident to her mother and Gilly, Gilly then tells Kylie of the curse much to Sally’s anger as she wanted to be the one who eventually told tell her girls. Kylie is also very angry at her mother for not telling her.

A couple of days before the accident Sally and Gilly’s beloved aunt, Jet (Dianne Wiest), knowing she is about to die, retrieves the magical Book of the Raven which explains how the curse can be reversed.

She leaves the book for her sister Franny (Stockard Channing) to act on. However after Gideon’s accident Kylie takes it and discovers the answer to reversing the curse lies in the family’s ancestral home in England.  So she heads to the UK followed closely by her mother and aunt who realise she is in great danger.

Sally and Gilly’s travels bring them into contact with tattooed and very ripped English professor of witchcraft Ian (Lee Pace). He helps Sally rediscover the supernatural powers she’s repressed and, together with Gilly, they set out to find Kylie.

Helping Kylie in her search around the family’s old UK home is farmhand Tom (Solly McLeod) who, she eventually discovers, has a dangerous ulterior motive.

While the storyline sounds far-fetched and of course, is, there are those who will appreciate a movie with plenty of magic, spells and supernatural experiences.

Then there will be those who are interested in the work of Bullock and Kidman so many years after the original movie. They are unlikely to be disappointed.

Together with Pace they expertly and delightfully bring the movie’s funnier one lines to life.

Bullock’s Sally is far more sensible and settled than Kidman’s fun-loving Gilly but the chemistry and connection between the two is evident even when they are in conflict.

It’s watching these actors strutting their stuff that’s most likely to ensure a strong box office return for Practical Magic 2.

Practical Magic 2 is now showing in Australian cinemas.

*Pictures Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures