SYNOPSIS: A story of secrets and sacrifice, “Practical Magic 2” reunites the above-the-title stars from the 1998 original as they attempt to break the curse that has plagued their family for generations.
REVIEW: Fans of the original film will welcome the return of the supernatural Owens sisters, but newcomers may find the sequel less than magical.
Set twenty-five years after the events of the first film, the Owens family of witches, sisters Sally and Gillian Owens (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman) and eccentric aunts Frances (Franny) and Jet (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest), has expanded to include Sally’s daughters Kylie (Joey King, in the role originally played by Evan Rachel Wood) and Antonia (Maisie Williams). They are a tight knit group, but Sally hasn’t told her daughters that they have magical powers or about the family curse.
“No magic is stronger than sisterhood,” says Aunt Frances. “Cast by fate, tested by time, and never broken.”
When Kylie falls in love with “tall, dark and possibly cursed” Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), he becomes the latest victim of the family’s centuries old curse.
“Everyone we love dies,” says Sally. “It’s not great for the Tinder bio,” says Gillian. “We’re Owens women. Love is our undoing.”
Desperate to break the curse’s cycle, Kylie jets off to England, with Sally and Gillian in hot pursuit, to get to the bottom of their family history and the curse that has fated their loved ones to die. “I’m gonna go fix this,” she says.
A legacy sequel with one foot planted firmly in the past and the other in present day, “Practical Magic 2” offers callbacks to the original, a hint of romance, lighthearted humor, curses and witch’s spells. It’s a bit of a hodge podge that binds together the disparate elements with fan service and good will.
Bullock and Kidman effortlessly slip into their roles of the quarter century ago, recreating the same kind of chemistry that made the original film a hit, but it is Dianne Wiest as kooky Aunt Jet who finds the balance between warmth and comedy.
It’s a fine line in an unnecessarily complicated story that involves a missing daughter, a century’s old curse, and an innocent man in a coma because of the family hex. The very survival of the Owens family hangs in the balance, and yet, Sally and Gillian still find time to goof around. One minute they’re in tears, wondering if they’ll ever see Kylie again, the next Gilly is de-pantsing Sally and telling her to lighten up. The comedy doesn’t match the situation and Bullock’s sharp way with a line often breaks the film’s dramatic spell.
“Practical Magic 2” is bewitched with its characters. Perhaps a little too much. Even at just a titch over two hours, the film feels overlong, padded with character work, subplots and moments that don’t forward the story. By the time we get to the feel-good ending–with Sally and Gillian using their powers to make margaritas–it feels like the movie delivers more tricks than treats.
In an early scene in “I Care a Lot,” the new thriller starring Rosamund Pike as professional legal guardian to the elderly Marla Grayson, says “I care. I care a lot,” referring to her wards, but it soon becomes clear that she really only cares for one thing. Money.
If you were to look up the word irredeemable in the dictionary you may well find a picture of Marla Grayson alongside the definition. She is an elegantly dressed, smiling viper who takes advantage of the old and infirm for profit. She’s a court appointed guardian who swoops in, cuts off family members as she sequesters her wards in care homes that feel more like prisons while she siphons their bank accounts and sells their homes to cover her exorbitant fees.
When Grayson and girlfriend Fran (Eiza González) pay off Dr. Karen Amos (Alicia Witt),a crooked doctor who gussies up medical records so Grayson Guardianship can take control of her patient’s lives.
On the face of it their latest mark, Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), seems like a perfect victim. Wealthy and without family, she’s vulnerable and just waiting to be bilked. Or is she? Turns out Jennifer has some secrets, and worse than that, some very important and dangerous friends. “I’m the worst mistake you’ll ever make,” Jennifer hisses at Marla.
With stories of elder abuse making front page news far too often, “I Care a Lot” provides a modicum of revenge, turning the tables in a delicious way.
Pike revisits the cold and calculating character that won her raves in “Gone Girl” but ups the ante to plumb the depths of depravity. To describe the predatory Marla as a shark does a disservice to Great Whites. “Playing fair. Being scared, that gets you nowhere,” she says. “That gets you beat.” Seemingly born without a heart, she masks her viciousness with a veneer of professionalism and her well-practised mantra of “I care, a lot.” Pike is clearly having fun here playing cold and calculating, but never resorts to the usual villain schtick. Her composure is disarming but, like an Oleander bloom, cut her and she bleeds poison.
Wiest is devilishly engaging as a woman with secrets and Peter Dinklage brings a barely contained rage to his role (NO SPOILERS HERE) but it is Pike who dominates.
“I Care a Lot” is a rarity, a truly mean-spirited movie where the best you can do is find yourself rooting for the least terrible person to persevere. It sags in the last half hour, becoming slightly more conventional but ends with a bang.
“Rabbit Hole,” the new film starring Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest, is about what happens when the natural order of things is disrupted. Just as summer always follows spring and two plus two always equals four, some things are immutable. The sad premise that lies at the base of “Rabbit Hole,” however, is a natural law that unfortunately isn’t as absolute as the others. What happens to parents when they outlive their children?
Howie and Becca (Eckhart and Kidman) are a couple trying to deal with the death of their four-year-old son Danny. They are at different stages of their grief, but they share a couple of things; a terrible sense of loss and an inability to know how to deal with it. On the surface he wants to move on but at night secretly watches videos of the toddler. She is angry at the world, a bubbling cauldron of resentment and hurt that could boil over at any time. Healing comes slowly, and from some unexpected sources, leading up to a climax that is quiet and inconclusive yet starkly effective.
“Rabbit Hole” is the kind of film Nicole Kidman needs to make to remind us why we liked her in the first place. After nondescript performances in big budget stiffs like “Bewitched” and “The Golden Compass” it is a relief to see her sink her teeth into the role of the devastated mother. She avoids the clichés and melodrama a lesser actor might have brought to the role and delivers a masterfully subtle examination of grief and loss. The iciness that sometimes creeps into her work melts away here as she reveals her vulnerabilities.
Kidman leads the cast but fine performances abound. Eckhart connects (and disconnects when appropriate) with Kidman while Wiest hands in a beautifully modulated performance as a woman who has known much sadness in her life but has moved on. Each character in the film is flawed, yet in their own way sympathetic.
Up until this point director John Cameron Mitchell—of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “Shortbus” fame—hasn’t been known for his restraint, but with “Rabbit Hole” he takes a melodramatic premise and reins it in until all that’s left is real human emotion. Highly recommended.
SYNOPSIS: A story of secrets and sacrifice, “Practical Magic 2” reunites the above-the-title stars from the 1998 original as they attempt to break the curse that has plagued their family for generations.
