TWH— Nearly three decades after the Owens sisters first brought midnight margaritas, family curses, and a particularly memorable resurrection spell to the screen, Practical Magic 2 returns to the Owens family—and once again puts Witches and magic squarely in the cultural spotlight.
Practical Magic 2 cinematic poster [Warner Bros
As The Wild Hunt has noted in recent weeks, the film arrives amid a broader wave of Witch-themed entertainment this fall and renewed discussion about how popular culture portrays Witches and Witchcraft. Some conservative Christian commentators have already expressed concern about increasingly sympathetic portrayals of Witchcraft. But what do Witches themselves make of the latest visit with Sally, Gillian, the aunts, and the rest of the Owens family?
We asked members of the Pagan community to watch Practical Magic 2 and share their reactions. Earlier this month, The Wild Hunt’s Meg Elison offered her assessment of the sequel in “Nostalgia is a Curse,” finding the sequel trades the original’s sense of possibility for repetition, bloodline mythology, and commercially packaged nostalgia.
Two others from The Wild Hunt team, Stacy Psaros and Star Bustamonte, finally had a chance to see the film and shared their views. Neither expected Hollywood to deliver an accurate representation of contemporary Witchcraft, and Hollywood did not disappoint on that front. Their responses, however, reveal something perhaps more interesting than magical accuracy: what it means to see Witches portrayed as complicated, loving, eccentric, ordinary people rather than villains.
There are spoilers ahead.
And, naturally, midnight margaritas.
Stacy’s take….
A generational love curse. Chocolate tipsy cake. The aunts. Attempting to break said curse. Midnight Margaritas. No real magic to be found, but enough “Hollywood” magic to make it fun.
Yes, all those beats are still in the new Practical Magic 2, but the way we get to each of them is new and different—though definitely still in a rom-com sort of way. If you’re a fan of the original, you’ll enjoy this visit back to the Owens family. If you’re a fan of the books, you’ll notice some differences. But you’ll still enjoy the trip!
We all thought Sally and Gilly had broken the curse in Practical Magic, but alas, that is not the case, and Gary dies an early death. At his gravesite, Sally casts her last spell: She’ll never do magic again, and she’ll never tell her daughters about their powers. Thus saving them from the curse, obviously! More of an intention than a spell, it seals her power behind loads of self-inflicted wards so that it doesn’t seep out… too often.
Fast-forward several years. The daughters are now grown. Antonia is studying to be a neurosurgeon. Kylie is a student with a boyfriend who loves her to the moon. Gilly has been doing magic but, at Sally’s request, has kept it a secret from her nieces. And Sally is, of course, leading that normal life she’s always wanted.
But magic has a way of creeping in when you least expect it.
Enter Aunt Jet. It’s her birthday, and she’s drawn to the library by a raven, which leads her to Maria Owens’ hidden Book of the Raven, a book of left-handed magic containing Maria’s spells. Of course, it includes one that will break the curse she cast on the family. Jet steals the book from the library. However, those all-important curse-breaking pages are magically stuck together, and she cannot open them.
Then the usual Owens trope happens: Kylie falls in love, tells her boyfriend Gideon how she feels, and whammo—he’s struck by a car and falls into a coma. Only breaking the curse will save him, so Kylie steals the book of left-handed magic, which magically leads her back to the family homeland in England to try to undo the curse.
She’s also mad as hell at Sally for hiding the fact that she and Antonia are Witches—and that there’s a possible family curse. Because teenagers, amiright?
So Sally and Gilly set off for England to find her. Because how much trouble can she get into in one day? Turns out, an awful lot. Sally must learn to unlock the magic she’s tucked away for so long, and Gilly is the support system that helps her do it.
Enter Ian Wright, a tattooed magical practitioner in England whom Franny sends them to for help. Or is he helping himself? Hrm…
Along the way, Kylie meets a local townie who says he will help her, but he has plans of his own involving the Owens line of Witches and their innate magical gifts. Gilly and Sally must make up in order to use their power together to save Kylie.
Your blood. My blood. Our blood.
In the end, as if by magic, the pages of the book open to reveal how to dissolve the curse. And Franny takes it upon herself to make that happen.
Then we get to have midnight margaritas.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit back with the Owens family. Gilly was at her most Gilly. Sally has major breakthroughs again. The aunts save the day, as always, in the most aunt-like ways possible. And the women of the family are now free to fall in love safely.
For real this time.
I didn’t go into this movie expecting real magic, but the depiction of Witches as normal, if eccentric, people gave me hope again, just like the original did.
Pass me a margarita and a black umbrella. It’s time to fly.
Star’s take….
While I certainly had some issues with Practical Magic 2, I still managed to enjoy it more than I expected.
Hollywood has a long history of misrepresenting magical practices, no matter what filmmakers say about using actual practitioners as consultants. But to be fair, this was not a documentary. It was a film loosely based on Alice Hoffman’s novel The Book of Magic. Still, some of my least favorite tropes were present.
The idea that only women can be Witches or genuine magical practitioners is annoying. Any actual Witch knows this is utter rubbish. Magic comes in a wide variety of forms and can be wielded by people of any gender. And yet, the idea still manages to make its way into numerous scripts every year.
Next, we have the scary “black magic,” left-hand-path evildoer seeking to take what does not belong to him. Le sigh. As a villain, he wasn’t very interesting—more of an entitled and clearly repressed white man who managed to convince himself he was owed something that he was not. I’ve met better potential villains on a late-night grocery run! He did, however, provide a convenient pathway for the Owens women to finally break the generational curse.
And yeah, the whole generational curse tied to a mysterious grimoire that no one can open to the necessary pages, along with an ancient artifact—definitely some Necronomicon vibes working their way in. Meh. If you’ve seen one generational curse, you’ve seen them all.
So, from a factual, real-world point of view, utter hokum. And yet, it was still a fun movie to watch. Bullock and Kidman resurrected their characters with the charisma and talent one would expect from seasoned actresses. With Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing back in the mix as the aunts, Jet and Franny, Practical Magic 2 certainly did its job of capturing the nostalgia of the original.
Despite my dislike of some of the elements the filmmakers chose to include, it was fairly easy to suspend that part of my frequently overcritical brain and just enjoy the journey. Seeing how the Owens family had progressed, along with Sally Owens’ now-grown daughters, Antonia and Kylie, added more texture to the story.
I would have liked a bit more from Antonia’s character, which I felt was largely undeveloped and unexplored and, at times, even seemed extraneous. In the original movie, it is the strength of the bond that sisters Sally and Gillian share, along with the aid of new friends and neighbors, that puts things to rights. But the bond between Antonia and Kylie seems more ephemeral. Ultimately, it is again the bond between Sally and Gillian that saves the day.
I especially liked the way the film handled the passing of the aunts. Both of their deaths were poignant, sweet, and cleverly done. We should all hope for such a soft and meaningful passing, frankly.
The overall message I took away from the film was that you cannot deny who and what you are, no matter how hard you might try. Eventually, be it magic, love, or something unpleasant, it will bubble its way to the surface. And when we accept the help of those who know and love us best, we are much more likely to succeed.
Not a bad message for a movie that purports to wrap itself in magic.
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