Film Review. Practical Magic. 26 Years Later

How Did I Miss the Magic all those years ago?

Wow. How did I miss the brilliance of Practical Magic when I first saw it in 1998, at the age of 45? I loved it, but I didn't see what I see now.

Practical Magic 2 opened in theaters last Friday, which surprises me a little. You would think they would release it closer to Halloween. Two people in the industry reached out today to make sure I would review it because they think it might be in my sweet spot.

I haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t know. But I decided that watching the original again was critical.

It just finished, and wow.

The nuance. The cinematography. The subtle, brilliant humor. The sisterhood. And those fabulous, fabulous aunts. Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest are two halves of one perfect character. Together, they are the yin and yang of what every aunt should be, witch or not.

Sandra Bullock has to move through so many emotions, many of which she would come to experience in real life during the 28 years that followed, but had not yet lived when she made it. Maternal love. Grief. Inner conflict. Bullying. Joy. She nailed every one of them.

And when she is begging the aunts to bring her husband back? That was her Academy Award performance. Fuck The Blind Side.

And Nicole Kidman? She has a freedom here that I think she has lost in some of her later work. Maybe it is because of the way her life has gone. The actor she is now is more refined, but also more confined. Here, she is wild and funny and completely uncontained. You can feel her taking up every inch of the screen.

Which, of course, leads me to the dancing. And the music. It is everywhere, and there is no way you don’t want to come home, put on one of those tunes, and dance around the kitchen table, putting the lime in the coconut. And “You Were Always on My Mind”? Well, you will be hearing it a different way for a long time.

The script is perfect. The seams of humor, fear, grief, and rage are woven together like the chocolate mousse I used to fold back when I was giving fancy dinner parties. Folding chocolate mousse is an art. You have to bring the ingredients together without losing the lightness.

That is what this script does. One wrong move, too much humor or too much pain, and you ruin the entire dessert.

But this was 1998. A film built entirely around women, their vulnerability, their power, and their collective might. Or should I say our collective might. Of course, the Academy would never have considered honoring it for anything.

We are now in 2026, and God, do we need it. We have a deep urge to know that women can find our power again and that it cannot be stripped from us, broom after broom. That no matter what forces surround us or try to do us in, if we stick together, we can overcome every one of them.

Even the townspeople are perfect. Twenty-eight years later, they would be memes. Wonderful, clever memes.

It is an extraordinary film for women, mothers, sisters, and daughters. Really, it is a remarkable film for anyone who has ever needed to be reminded of what becomes possible when women refuse to abandon one another.

A lot has changed since 1998, for them and for all of us. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman have lived through public heartbreak, death, motherhood, fear, and all the complications of big, imperfect lives. They have also done extraordinary work while proving themselves to be collaborators with other women. Women with senses of humor. Women with female friendships that have lasted for decades. Women who elevate other women rather than push them aside.

Perhaps those qualities were already there while they were making Practical Magic. Perhaps I simply did not have enough life behind me in my forties to recognize them.

Maybe that is how I missed the magic.

I love this film. I cannot even imagine how I am going to feel after seeing Part Two tomorrow.

Watch the first one again. Promise me.