Joyce Glasser reviews Practical Magic 2 (September 11, 2026), Cert 12A, 129 mins. In cinemas
Twenty-eight years is a long time to be waiting for a sequel and, it is fair to say that nobody has been waiting. The original Practical Magic was a chance to see Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman – two A listers, if not yet at the top of their game, then certainly in their ascendency – playing against type as unlikely sisters and even more unlikely witches. The main draw of this pointless sequel – now directed by Susanne ‘In a Better World’ Bier) is the same: to see Bullock, now sixty-two and Kidman, now fifty-nine.
But thanks to Hollywood’s magical ways, age has not withered them nor changed anything about their characters’ lives. The other magical element is how three script writers of the caliber of Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel could produce something this sentimental, labored and excruciatingly tedious.
During the main action, sisters Sally (Bullock) and Gillian (Kidman) Owens live in a cross between a haunted and fairy tale charming wooden house on the sea in Massachusetts. It is set in New England because the Puritan founding fathers burned witches there in the 17th and 18th centuries, although a great-grandmother many times over, Maria, escaped her fate.
The extended matriarchal family returning from the 1998 film include two elderly aunts: unabashed eccentric Frances Owens, played by a wooden Stockard Channing and her demure sister Bridget Owens, played by Dianne Wiest (78) who is ghost-like: barely there at all. When it becomes obvious she has no role to play in the story, she is quickly dispatched to witch heaven.
After an endless set-up, we get to the crux of the matter. Sally’s daughter Kylie (Joey King) has been sheltered from the family secrets, although even Sally and Gillian have some discovering to do. When Kylie brings home the handsome, gentle, all-around marriage material Giddeon (Xolo Maridueña), the older witches panic. They know or fear what happens to the men when an Owen woman falls in love.
While Giddeon’s life hangs in the balance in hospital, under the care of her sister, Antonia (Maisie Williams) and Aunt Frances, Kylie is off on a journey to save him. She discovers her Aunt Frances’ purloined Book of Ravens and sets off to break the spell and free Giddeon. The trouble is, she is heading for danger as she is not prepared to deal with the book’s dark powers.
Most of the last third of the film takes us to a picture postcard village in England, where many American films that run out of steam take us to add some exoticism to their film. In fairness, there is some plausibility here, given the fact that our King James I was obsessed with witches (he authored a book on them) and the killing of innocent women took place in England as well as New England.
Alarmed at the news Kylie is off on her own with the book, Mother Sally, and Aunt Gillian rush to her rescue, with the help of an adult love interest, the abundantly tattooed witch expert Dr Ian Wright (Lee Pace).
Do we ever believe any of these women are witches? No. Do we care about their vapid lives? No. Do we feel any tension when Kylie meets up with an English creep who offers to help her? No.
But Practical Magic 2 might win the competition for the number of scenes in which girlfriends or sisters (and here, we have two pairs of sisters at it) curl up in bed together and whisper for no real reason other than to annoy older audiences who struggle with high pitched voices and whispers. In a huge house, the sisters curl up in a single bed; in a nice, roomy hotel in England the sisters curl up in a single bed!
Rupert Gregson-Williams sentimental, heavy-handed music signals every bit of hokum spoken and whispered. Even at 90 minutes the plot would outstay its welcome. The real curse in the film is that the talented writers drag it out to epic lengths at 130 minutes.
