The Owens witches return to the screen in Practical Magic 2, a film that navigates the complex landscape of modern nostalgia while revisiting the quirky, supernatural world established in the 1998 original. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman reprise their roles as Sally and Gilly, joined by Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest as their eccentric aunts. Directed by Susanne Bier with a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, and Kelly Marcel, the film is based on the work of author Alice Hoffman.
The narrative picks up with Sally, the more pragmatic sister, who has long abandoned magic, while Gilly remains the more impulsive of the two. Despite the belief that the generational curse—which doomed the men loved by Owens women—had been broken, the reality has proven far more complicated. Sally’s second husband, previously portrayed by Aidan Quinn, passed away years ago, leading her to suppress any magical influence in her daughters’ lives to protect them from similar heartbreak.
The film adjusts the original timeline, shifting events from the 1998 setting to the early 2000s. This creative choice allows the characters of Kylie, played by Joey King, and Antonia, played by Maisie Williams, to remain in their early twenties. Meanwhile, Bullock and Kidman portray versions of their characters that exist in a unique space of Hollywood middle age. The plot gains momentum when Kylie’s boyfriend, Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), falls into a mysterious coma, prompting a desperate search for answers that leads the family to their ancestral home in England.
The journey introduces a fascinating contrast in male characters: an occult professor portrayed by Lee Pace, who encourages Sally to embrace her power, and a brooding warlock played by Solly McLeod, who harbors a sense of entitlement toward Kylie’s abilities. Amidst these encounters, Gilly offers a poignant, camp-infused warning to her niece that “love is our undoing,” adding that “heartbreak feels good in a place like this.”
While the film features some inconsistent CGI and occasionally heavy-handed dialogue about sisterhood, the core appeal remains the chemistry between Bullock and Kidman. Their ability to channel the unique, beguiling energy of their characters provides a sense of continuity that anchors the more chaotic plot elements. The film serves as a reminder that, much like the occult realm, one cannot truly escape their inheritance.
Practical Magic 2 is scheduled for release in US and Australian cinemas on September 10, followed by a UK release on September 11. Despite its flaws, the sequel succeeds in delivering the warm, seasonal pleasures that fans of the original have long anticipated, proving that the Owens family legacy still holds a distinct, magical charm. The report also notes that cosmic and otherwise, since the Owens witches last graced the big screen with their practical magic of sleeping draughts, midnight margaritas and generational love curses, m uch has changed in the universe. The report also notes that for one, movies like the 1998 cult-ish classic Practical Magic – a compellingly bizarre mashup of genres, aspirational 90s fashion and sisterly affection starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in their movie-star primes as lovelorn sorceresses in Puritan-lite Massachusetts – largely stopped reaching theaters. The report also notes that for another, nostalgia cycles only intensified and tightened, our algorithms clogged with unsolicited sequels and dupes for Bullock’s impeccable vintage 90s Levi’s. The report also notes that reuniting both Kidman and Bullock, and Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest as their lovingly eccentric aunts, somewhat of an anomaly, at once a seeming inevitability and, as a matrilineal romance comedy (though decidedly not a romcom) starring two 60-year-old women, an oddity, which makes Practical Magic 2. The report also notes that but Practical Magic remains so idiosyncratic in tone and, well, kookiness, that a sequel somewhat appeals, there’s no circumventing nostalgia bait. The report also notes that the new film, directed by Susanne Bier from a script by original co-screenwriter Akiva Goldsman alongside Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel (and again based on a book by Alice Hoffman ), doubles down on the distillable ingredients of the original – hairpin tonal turns; strange CGI flourishes; needle drops by Stevie Nicks, that patron saint of witchy white women – though perhaps to a fault. The report also notes that once again, Bullock’s Sally, the older and more neurotic/sensible of the central sisters, has given up practicing magic, much to the chagrin of Kidman’s looser, airier Gilly. The report also notes that life offered no such happy endings; her second husband, played in the original by Aidan Quinn, lasted only a few years, prompting her to supernaturally erase any memories of magic from her daughters’ minds, lest they too knowingly love a man to death, though she ended the first film believing that she broke the centuries-long curse that every man an Owens woman loved was doomed to die.