Practical Magic 2

The Owens women are back

The story once again revolves around the Owens family and the curse that has complicated love across generations. Sally’s daughters are now young women, expanding the story beyond the original sisters as the consequences of their magical family history return. This sends the Owens women on a journey involving family secrets, relationships, England and enough spells and supernatural complications to suggest there should be considerably more energy on screen than there actually is. Yet the magic never really manifests.

Everyone appears to be overacting, almost as if the cast received their scripts only days before filming and were instructed to play caricatures of the characters they had previously established. Even performers who have demonstrated remarkable ability elsewhere struggle to make the dialogue or relationships believable. Rather than feeling cinematic, much of Practical Magic 2 plays like a poorly executed television drama that occasionally seems slightly embarrassed that its story involves witches and magic in the first place.

Where did all the magic go?

The most significant problem isn’t actually the supernatural material. It’s the pacing.

At 130 minutes, the film feels about 100 minutes too long. Scenes drag, conversations continue well beyond their usefulness, and potentially interesting ideas become buried underneath dialogue that rarely generates either humour or emotion. There are moments intended to celebrate female empowerment, sisterhood and the importance of family, but whatever these scenes are trying to say gets crushed beneath the sheer weight of the storytelling. Even the journey to England seems designed to inject a little Harry Potter-style wonder into proceedings. Unfortunately, that particular spell doesn’t work either.

More problematic is the lack of convincing chemistry between the women. A film built around sisterhood and generational family relationships needs audiences to believe in those connections. There are occasional glimpses of warmth, but remarkably little that makes these relationships worth investing in. This is particularly disappointing because the film has assembled performers who should be capable of making even ordinary material compelling. Instead, everyone seems trapped inside a story desperately searching for a spark.

The bottom line

Practical Magic 2 has all the ingredients required to create an entertaining return to the Owens family: an established fan base, beloved characters, accomplished actresses, family drama and a supernatural mythology ready to be explored. Yet very little comes together.

The performances feel exaggerated, the relationships lack chemistry and the dialogue rarely gives this talented cast anything worthwhile to work with. Worst of all, the excruciating pacing turns 130 minutes into something that feels considerably longer. There is a certain irony in watching a film filled with spells and enchantments gradually lull its audience into an entirely different kind of sleepy enchantment.

Practical Magic 2 needed considerably more practical and a whole lot more magic.

REEL DIALOGUE: Is the greatest power actually found in love?

For all its witches, spells and supernatural power, Practical Magic 2 eventually arrives at an unexpectedly familiar conclusion.

Love has been treated as a curse throughout the story. To love someone is to risk losing them. Relationships bring vulnerability, pain and sacrifice. Yet ultimately, it isn’t greater magical power that provides the answer. It is sacrificial love.

That creates an interesting connection with Christianity because sacrifice sits at the very centre of the biblical understanding of love.

Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13 (ESV)

Yet the Christian story goes further than simply loving those closest to us. The Apostle Paul writes: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8 (ESV)

The cross presents love not primarily as an emotion or even something we receive, but as something willing to give itself for another.

Ironically, beneath all the spells and curses, Practical Magic 2 lands upon an idea considerably more powerful than its magic.

The curse isn’t ultimately broken by having greater power. It is broken when someone chooses sacrificial love.

And Christianity would argue that we’ve seen an even greater expression of that love already.