Practical Magic 2 Review: These Margaritas Could Use a Little More Charm

PLOT: A multi-generational family of witches, cursed to be loveless for centuries, attempts to break the spell by confronting dark secrets and sacrificing for each other.

REVIEW: There are certain movies that become more special with time, and 1998’s Practical Magic is absolutely one of them. It wasn’t exactly beloved by critics when it first arrived. But over the years, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s witchy romantic comedy found its audience. And honestly, it’s easy to understand why. There’s something incredibly comfortable about that movie. The house, the small-town setting, the music, the midnight margaritas, and especially the chemistry between its cast have helped it become the kind of movie people revisit every fall. I still have very fond memories watching this with my mother all those years ago.

So nearly 30 years later, we have Practical Magic 2. And the good news is that the magic isn’t completely gone. The bad news, as I found while putting together this review, is that there’s definitely a lot less of it.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as Sally and Gillian Owens. Then you have absolute LEGENDS Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing returning as Jet and Franny. This time, when the Owens family curse once again rears its ugly head, the family is pulled back into a world Sally has desperately tried to leave behind. Before long, the search for a way to finally break that curse takes the Owens sisters across the Atlantic to England.

And for about the first 30 minutes, I was completely in.

The biggest reason is Bullock, Kidman, Wiest, and Channing. The second these four are together, the film feels like Practical Magic again. Bullock and Kidman fall back into Sally and Gillian so effortlessly that it rarely feels like nearly three decades have passed. There’s an ease between them that you simply can’t manufacture this many years later. Wiest and Channing are equally good, and whenever the four of them share the screen, it’s hard not to smile.

Unfortunately, once the story leaves the familiar surroundings of the Owens home and heads to London, something changes. The cozy, slightly strange atmosphere that made the original so inviting gets replaced by a more conventional supernatural mystery. The movie gets bigger, but somehow feels less magical.

The original movie was messy too. It bounced between multiple genres, but that weird combination was part of its charm. The sequel piles on mythology, explanations, and characters searching for answers to questions that become less interesting the longer the movie goes.

At 130 minutes, this thing also desperately needed someone willing to yell “cut.”

There are scenes that reach what feels like their natural ending and then just keep going…and going. Director Susanne Bier has done some solid work over the years. However, much of her recent career has been straight to streaming, and you can occasionally feel that here. Practical Magic 2 certainly looks more polished than your average made-for-streaming sequel, but it often moves like one.

There are also some odd editing choices, particularly during flashbacks and supernatural moments. At times, those choices felt like they were ripped straight out of Twilight. It’s not enough to ruin the movie, but it adds to the feeling that Practical Magic 2 never quite settles on what it wants to be.

Then there’s Kylie and Antonia.

Joey King and Maisie Williams are both perfectly capable, but neither character makes the same impression as Sally or Gillian. King gets considerably more to do, while Williams spends far too much of the movie on the sidelines. They should have given her something to do besides wait around for everyone else to finish the plot.

The recasting itself is also kinda strange.

Evan Rachel Wood played Kylie in the original, while Alexandra Artrip played Antonia. Artrip has retired from acting, so recasting Antonia makes sense. But Wood is still very much an active actress. Susanne Bier has explained that the characters were recast because the sequel depicts them as younger women fresh out of college, but that only creates another problem. The movie wants us to celebrate nearly 30 years of nostalgia while also pretending the younger generation hasn’t aged accordingly. It’s the kind of choice that highlights just how messy the whole thing can be.

Lee Pace fares better as Ian Wright, a professor who becomes tangled up in the Owens family mystery. Pace has enough natural charm to make the character enjoyable, but even he feels like another ingredient tossed into a movie that already has more than enough going on.

Yet every time I was ready to check out, Practical Magic 2 would suddenly remind me why I wanted to see it in the first place. Bullock and Kidman would get another great moment together. The movie would lean back into the warmth and humor of the original. And yes, when the margaritas start flowing, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be sitting right there with them.

That’s what makes the movie frustrating rather than outright bad.

I didn’t hate Practical Magic 2. Not even close. When it charms, it really charms. But there’s a difference between bringing back the ingredients people loved and understanding why those ingredients worked in the first place.

It isn’t the worst legacy sequel I’ve seen, and it certainly isn’t the best. The Devil Wears Prada 2 recently showed how you can revisit beloved characters years later while still giving the sequel a reason to exist beyond nostalgia.

Practical Magic 2 never quite gets there.

At the end of the day, this is another decades-late sequel that reunites almost everyone you wanted to see, gives you enough nostalgia to make you happy you came back, and then reminds you that sometimes you really can’t recreate whatever strange combination made the original special.

The Owens sisters still have some magic left.

I just wish the movie around them had a little more of it.