By BRIAN THOMPSON
brian@du2.byu.edu
Anytime you put Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in a movie together you can bet it's going to be good. Unfortunately for Warner Bros. Pictures and director Griffith Dunne, it takes more than two Hollywood beauties to make it great.
'Practical Magic' is the story of the Owens family, a group of love-hungry witches who suffer from an ancient curse -- every time an Owens woman falls in love with a man he is suddenly doomed to an untimely death.
Bullock and Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens who each deal with the curse in their own way. In an attempt to never allow herself to fall in love, Sally conjures up a spell detailing an impossible combination of characteristics describing her perfect man. Gillian, on the other hand, goes on a wild trip to Arizona in search of fun and sun, and finds a string of so many men falling for her that she doesn't have time to love any one of them.
Of course, their plans backfire and each sister finds herself unlucky in love.
Goran Visnjic plays Jimmy, Gillian's vampire-like lover who learns about the sisters' witchcraft the hard way after becoming an abusive boyfriend. When detective Hallett (Aidan Quinn) learns of Jimmy's disappearance, he comes to the Owen's home looking for clues, but finds Sally instead.
The plot of 'Practical Magic' doesn't seem to know which direction it wants to take. While Sally's love life ends up resembling something like 'Sleepless in Seattle' with two lovers destined to be together, Gillian's romance ends up looking more like 'The Exorcist.' The story bounces back and forth so often between romance, comedy and horror that it left me more confused than intrigued.
I was also anticipating a bunch of funny spells and mystical potions, but aside from a couple of spoons stirring drinks by themselves and Sally lighting some candles by blowing on them, there are more laughs during an old episode of 'Bewitched.'
Some of the best scenes in the film come from veteran actors Diane Weist and Stockard Channing, who play Sally and Gillian's eccentric aunts, Jet and Frances. Sensing the despair their nieces are suffering, Jet and Frances concoct a remedy in the form of 'midnight margaritas' and all four women wind up dancing around the kitchen to Harry Nilsson's tropical tune 'Put the Lime in the Coconut.' Unfortunately, just as I was getting into it, the storyline took Weist and Channing out of town, leaving Bullock and Kidman on their own.
Due to its timely Halloween release, 'Practical Magic' will probably make a ton of money in October. However, watching it is a lot like watching 'Dawson's Creek' or 'Hyperion Bay' on the Warner Bros. television network because it relies so heavily on contemporary music for the film's atmosphere. 'Practical Magic' will likely go out of style as quickly as the music does.