When it comes to cozy fall movies that aren’t scary, 1998’s Practical Magic has been on the rotation for me every few years. And every time I watch it, I start thinking it’s flawless before something happens about halfway through that just doesn’t work for me. As we await Practical Magic 2 on the 2026 movie schedule this weekend, I need to talk about this. SPOILERS are ahead for the 1998 movie.
I Think Practical Magic That Doesn’t Work For One Reason
To get ready for the sequel, I turned on Practical Magic with my HBO Max subscription. I hadn’t seen it in probably five years. As usual, when I started it, I was drawn in right away by the 1990s witchy aesthetic and Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s incredible chemistry as the Owens sisters. Then something happened that also always happens: Aidan Quinn’s Investigator Gary Hallet struts into the movie, and sort of ruins it for me.
If you don’t remember, halfway through the movie, Gary Hallet, who is a state investigator, arrives from Tucson, Arizona, digging around for Jimmy, who’s the boyfriend of Kidman’s Gilly, who the sisters inadvertently killed and tries to resurrect with magic. And look, I’m a complete sucker for a romance plotline, but, for some reason, Sally’s sudden romance with Gary just bothers me. I think the movie bit off more than it could chew, and the plotline feels like it’s shoehorning in an unnecessary B-plot, or perhaps the two actors have bad chemistry together. No matter what it is, it always sticks out like a sore thumb, and I do a little eye roll.
How I’d Recast The Spell It If I Could
It’s hard to say what went wrong with Practical Magic’s romance plotline. I see why it’s there – the movie is about breaking generational curses, and every man who loves them is an Owens. By having Gary there, it shows Sally that there’s love out there for her despite the death of her husband and father to her two daughters.
I think one thing that’s totally unsexy about their romance is that Gary is trying to see if she murdered Jimmy, and doesn’t seem at all aware that it might have been self-defense. Gary is aware that Jimmy is a suspect in a string of murders involving young women, and yet he treats Sally like she’s his prime suspect before they randomly make out in between one of his interrogations. I also feel like in a movie that’s about sisterhood and multi-generational women in the same family, Gary gets a lot more to do than Gilly, their aunts, or Sally’s daughters. That's really frustrating.
I do hope that the upcoming sequel can break the curse that I think the movie sadly has. While the 1998 movie was technically a flop when it came out, I think there’s a good reason why it was revived for a second film. My problems aside, Bullock and Kidman’s sister dynamic is electric, and there’s something so cozy, mystical and feminine about the original that makes me go back to it again and again.
