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Oscar Winners’ Decades-Later Sequel Is a Modern Miracle

Unbelievably, “Practical Magic 2” is better than its predecessor.

It’s nearly impossible to recapture the magic of long-ago predecessors, which means legacy sequels are rarely a winning proposition. Practical Magic 2, however, is a unique case, since its 1998 ancestor is, in most regards, pretty terrible—making it far easier for Susanne Bier’s sequel to surpass it.

More coherent and polished while retaining the endearing chemistry of its leads, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, it’s no classic follow-up à la Top Gun: Maverick, but it casts a cute enough spell.

The least enchanting aspect of Practical Magic 2 (September 11, in theaters) is its 130-minute runtime, which is 20 minutes more than its story warrants and results in a post-climax wrap-up that drones on for a veritable eternity. Until it drags its feet on its way to the finish line, however, the film is a reasonably charming reunion with Sally (Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Kidman), who, 30 years after they last graced the screen, look and behave exactly as before.

Returning to her Massachusetts home for the birthday of Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest), who lives with Frances (Stockard Channing), Gillian is frustrated by the fact that Sally is still a stubborn stick-in-the-mud. In the aftermath of her second husband Gary’s death (Aiden Quinn, never seen), Sally has given up on magic and hidden the family’s witchy heritage from her grown daughters Kylie (Joey King, replacing the original’s Evan Rachel Wood), an art student, and Antonia (Maisie Williams), a pre-med something or other, thereby denying them the abilities that make them unique.

A tragedy awaits the supernatural clan at the outset of Practical Magic 2, and in its wake (pun intended), Sally is stunned to hear about, and meet, Kylie’s doting boyfriend Gideon (Blue Beetle’s Xolo Maridueña). Considering that the Owens women are still cursed to see their beloved men die, Sally fears that this will beget misfortune, and her concerns turn out to be well-founded when Gideon is critically hurt in an accident.

Due to this calamity, Kylie learns about her true occultist nature and discovers a mystical book (found in the public library by Jet) that holds the key to breaking the curse. Courtesy of visions that the tome inspires, she flies to England to visit a manor house that, it’s eventually revealed, has a deep connection to her bloodline.

This is a whole mess of plot, and yet Practical Magic 2’s script (by Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, and Kelly Marcel, based on Alice Hoffman’s The Book of Magic) isn’t unduly unwieldy, interspersing regular bits of interpersonal squabbling and horsing around—including Gillian demonstrating a fondness for pantsing her sibling—into its tale.

As yin-yang sisters whose differing temperaments and beliefs are offset by their bedrock love for each other, Bullock and Kidman continue to be an excellent pair, the latter wild and free and the former repressed and grumpy. It’s Sally’s bottled-up condition that’s the catalyst for this second go-round, and if Bullock is less than wholly expressive (even for a part that demands restraint), Bier keeps the proceedings lively by not dawdling on any single narrative element.

Once Sally and Gillian deduce that Kylie has impetuously traveled to England with a magic book she isn’t equipped to handle, they embark on a rescue mission whose first stop is the home of Professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace). Introduced naked on his bed, the academic is positioned from the start as a potential romantic interest for Sally. But given that he also has great experience in evil “left-hand” magic, Bier and company simultaneously tease him as a possible villain—an insinuation that, disappointingly, is half-baked.

With a rugged beard and a torso covered in tattoos, Pace proves a serviceable hunk, although the rightful focus remains on the heroines and their unbreakable bond. Sisterhood is the real magic power in Practical Magic 2, providing strength and support no matter the obstacles in Sally and Gillian’s path. The film’s empowering portrait of feminine and familial unity and resilience is only partially offset by a few second-half twists that feel tacked on—most of them involving Thomas Lockland (Solly McLeod), a random British caretaker whose involvement in this saga is at once crucial and dull.

While Sally is the dramatic fulcrum of Practical Magic 2, it’s Gillian who’s the truly magnetic witch, and not just because she’s the fierier of the two. Kidman appears to be having a blast as her uninhibited, telling-it-like-it-is character, and her sparkling vigor and humor are an antidote to the magical mumbo-jumbo spewed by her compatriots.

Bullock, on the other hand, goes too far in the other direction, and though she shows signs of life during the film’s closing passages, it’s not enough to fully overcome her performance’s passivity and pent-up sternness.

As with the original, Practical Magic 2 bites off more than it can chew, such that it’s obligated to intermittently cut back to the hospital room where Antonia (a complete afterthought) and Frances watch over a comatose Gideon—a duty that adds to the material’s distension. That said, Bier’s latest really spins its wheels during a conclusion marked by a magical showdown that goes on forever and a coda that lasts even longer. The desire to simultaneously tie up loose ends and connect this endeavor to its antecedent is understandable, but less tidiness would have been a fine trade-off for a swifter resolution.

Like this summer’s The Devil Wears Prada 2, Practical Magic 2 is first and foremost fan service, which goes some way toward explaining its desire to indulge in callbacks at the expense of concision. That may make it a somewhat cynical venture driven more by nostalgia than creative inspiration, but in the final tally, it’s superior to the first Practical Magic, whose mix of paranormal hijinks, rah-rah sibling drama, and domestic-abuse suspense was all-too-frequently unholy. Enhanced by Bier’s sturdy widescreen visuals and her headliners’ solid turns, it boasts a confidence and competence that compensates for its nagging shortcomings.

Whether Practical Magic 2 spawns additional franchise entries depends, ultimately, on audiences’ hunger for more of its trademark you-go-girl fantasy. On the basis of Bier’s contribution to the series, there could be worse things than a return engagement with Bullock and Kidman’s witches—even if, next time around, it would be nice if they put an emphasis on succinctness.

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Nick SchagerEntertainment Critic

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