Practical Magic
*
Rated on a 4-star
scale
USA
Directed by Griffin Dunne
Written by Adam Brooks, Avika Goldsman and Robin Swicord
CAST.....
Sandra Bullock.....Sally Owens
Nicole Kidman.....Gillian Owens
Aidan Quinn.....Gary Hallett
Dianne Wiest.....Aunt Jet
Stockard Channing.....Aunt Frances
Goran Visnjic.....Jimmy
Evan Rachel Wood.....Kylie
Alexandra Artrip.....Antonia
It's clear that a film is in trouble when it opens
with a heedlessly sweet and cheerful portrayal of a lynching. That's what
happens in "Practical Magic", an incoherent, rambling mess
which is about as uplifting as a family funeral.
The film attempts to be about a family of witches.
The two main characters are sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole
Kidman). As children, they live with their aunts Jet (Dianne Wiest) and Frances
(Stockard Channing), but as adults Sally is an All-American family gal and
Gillian travels from place to place and party to party, filling herself with
alcohol and semen.
Because of some curse, Sally's husband dies. Because
she's got poor taste in men, Gillian ends up being beaten and tormented by
her boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Visnjic). She calls Sally for help, who responds,
and in trying to get away from the angry beau, the pair end up killing him.
After returning home and burying him in the garden, they find that he somehow
keeps coming back to life, which affects their demeanour and arouses the
suspicion of homicide cop Gary Hallett (Aidan Quinn).
Does this sound strange and nonsensical? It's
not the fault of my description. "Practical Magic" has somehow taken three
writers to create a film without any sense of character, story or balance.
It has no idea what it's about or where it's going, and is clueless to the
very idea of a timeline. The essential plot points, for example, are established
in dreary form at the beginning of the film with a slovenly combination of
straight narrative and pseudo-montage. A regular real-time scene will be
playing out, when suddenly the camera will pan to the side and the person
in the shot will have suddenly aged several years and be in a different station
in life. What are the filmmakers playing at? Can't they be bothered to study
"Terms of Endearment", to discover how to make sudden transitions appear
seamless? Or are these abrupt shifts purposeful attempts to jump about before
we have a chance to start shouting at the screen in complaint of the other
flaws? Damn the director for being such a coward, the writers for giving
him the script which put him in that position, and the editor for not refusing
to cut a film in this ridiculous manner.
There are some good songs on offer, and in fact
they're playing constantly throughout the first and last thirds of the film.
This use of outside music is undoubtedly to try and boost some life and emotion
into the piece, since its own rhythm is so lacking in these essential
ingredients.
As with many bad movies, the natures of the characters
change constantly. Kidman's alternates from dumb to clever, sensitive to
slut. Bullock's seems to be a completely different person in every scene,
going through turns of being tough, weak, quick, slow, assertive, reliant,
edgy, calm, hopeful, resigned, joyous and desperate. The usually superb Dianne
Wiest and Stockard Channing play irritating idiots who wander round looking
like blitzed transvestites.
Even the diversity in the concept of the film
is suspect. Why are these people witches? Does witchcraft play an important
part in the emotions that we're supposed to have? No, the element is just
one of the many stupid distractions on offer. Notice that the TV spots and
posters for the film deliberately ignore the subject, and have advertised
"Practical Magic" as an ordinary romantic comedy.
With normal characters, the film could have gone
in several interesting directions. Think about it. A woman goes to help her
close sister because of her abusive boyfriend. They end up killing the boyfriend.
The film could be a focus on the relationship between the sisters. It could
be a drama, or even a black comedy about the feelings they experience afterwards.
Any of these ideas would be infinitely more fascinating than what we're actually
given -- a piling together of irrelevant elements, in the hope that one of
them will catch our attention. But my suggestions, especially the black comedy
notion, would require careful handling of tone -- something impossible for
the people involved with "Practical Magic", since it doesn't have any tone
at all.
Further proving that the witchcraft theme was
a bad one, "Practical Magic" doesn't even know the mechanics of its situation
-- it's unsure of what powers the witches have. This leads to hopeless and
agonising inconsistency throughout, which not only severs any possible audience
connection to the film, but chews it up and stomps on it, breaking through
the boundaries of our patience. At one point, I literally prayed that the
ordeal would end in less than twenty minutes. God was on my side, and it
did.
"Practical Magic" is more than abysmal -- it's
criminal. It's hard to believe that the director of this catastrophe is Griffin
Dunne, an Oscar-nominated producer and fine actor in such films as "After
Hours" and "An American Werewolf in London". If I didn't know who he was,
I'd consider pressing charges.
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
1999 Reviews
(alphabetical)
1999 Reviews (by star
rating)
Archive of all cinema reviews
(alphabetical)
Review Archive
Index
UK
Critic main page
|
![[Image]](http://www.ukcritic.com/posbanr2.gif)