October 15–22, 1998

movie shorts

Practical Magic

Nicole Kidman and Sandy Bullock as sister-witches must have seemed like a good idea. They're both lovely, resourceful actors and look good in trendy skimpy tops and long lush Pantene-ad hairstyles. Here they're beset by a family curse: the men they love are doomed to die. Goaded by a hometown that tortures them as children and encouraged by their standard-issue eccentric witch-aunts (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest), the wanna-be-normal Bullock seeks true love (eventually with superniceguy cop Aidan Quinn: will he ever play another character?); the willful Kidman leaves town and hooks up with a psycho-cowboy-killer (Goran Visnjic) who ends up possessing her Linda Blair-style. Like director Griffin Dunne's previous movie, Addicted to Love, this one has an erratically appealing tone, loving its wacky heroines but really wanting to domesticate them. The special effects are so-so (swirly glitter-dust and a frankly lousy see-through human figure). And the moral is banal: just be yourself (at one point described as "coming out") and eventually your mean-spirited, small-minded community will come 'round to cheer your Halloween night flights. If you must go, watch for Chloe Webb, still with the fried hair and sideways smile, in a tiny part: what happened to her career?

-Cindy Fuchs