charming sequel overstays its welcome

Avery tardy sequel to Practical Magic, in 2026 – what kind of sorcery is this? When it was released 28 years ago, the original film was savaged by critics and performed passably at the box office. But since then, it’s become a stealthy cult classic, thanks largely to its witchy trappings and the charm of its female cast.

You might not remember that the plot follows two spell-casting sisters (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman) who accidentally kill an abusive boyfriend, then bring him back to life. You probably do remember them drinking midnight margaritas with their colourful aunts (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest) to an inspired Harry Nilsson needle drop.

As you’d expect from a sequel produced by Bullock and Kidman, two of Hollywood’s sharpest old-school stars, Practical Magic 2 effortlessly conjures the original’s nostalgic appeal. Director Susanne Bier (Bird Box), taking over from OG helmer Griffin Dunne, even summons the original’s luminous lighting. Serious sister Sally Owens (Bullock) is still living with her aunts in a covetable Massachusetts mansion, though her daughters Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams) are now grown-up and making their way in the world, unaware that anyone in the family has supernatural powers.

Though Channing and Wiest are back and twinkly as ever, neither King nor Williams appeared in the original film. Williams’ character was played by Alexandra Artrip, who retired from acting shortly afterwards, while King’s Kylie was portrayed by a young Evan Rachel Wood. The latter has said she offered to return but was told her role was being recast – weird. Also weird: why is this witchy romp being released six weeks before Halloween?

Anyway, on a happier note, Sally’s sister Gilly (Kidman) is still a carefree and chaotic presence who arrives for a family birthday brandishing a fancy new margarita machine. We don’t hear Harry Nilsson just yet, but fans of his ludicrous calypso banger ‘Coconut’ (“She put the lime in the coconut…”) will be sated by the end.

As well as keeping her powers on the down low, Sally has neglected to mention the family curse: that any man who falls in love with an Owens woman is immediately doomed. So, when things get serious between Kylie and her boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), he ends up comatose in hospital.

This forces Sally to spill her witchy secret and gives the screenwriters an excuse to send Kylie to England to find “ye olde worlde” origins of the Owens women’s curse. Naturally, Sally and Gilly follow suit, which means we get low-hanging jokes about Kidman banging her head on the low-hanging beams of a country pub. More amusing, to British ears at least, is the fact that Sally’s British love interest (Lee Pace) is named Ian Wright.

The exhausting plot eventually loses its way and Practical Magic 2 overstays its welcome by at least 20 minutes. But there are some very touching moments along the way. Bullock has said that she and Kidman will “pass the torch” to King and Williams if this film spawns a threequel. But given that Practical Magic 2 is so predicated on the original stars’ kinetic chemistry, and Williams’ junior doctor spends most of the film marooned in a hospital ward, this sounds like wishful thinking.

The result is a fun, flawed sequel that does enough to conjure the original’s messy magic. But if an Owens sister had recited a spell for a tighter runtime – ‘Filmas Concisas’ perhaps? – Practical Magic 2 could have really taken flight.