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James Mottram

2/5 stars
Whether Practical Magic 2 was genuinely conjured into existence by fan demand – as its PR campaign claims – or is simply the result of Hollywood scraping the intellectual-property barrel and mining anything with a vague following, this long-delayed sequel to 1998’s Practical Magic is a disappointment.
Ultimately, this reunion with the magically inclined Owens family from Massachusetts is anything but spellbinding.
Once again, we meet the central coven of witches: Sally (Sandra Bullock), her younger sister Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and their eccentric aunts, Frances (Stockard Channing) and Bridget (Dianne Wiest).


While Gillian remains resolutely single, Sally has raised her daughters Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams) to be blissfully unaware of their extended family’s magical powers or the curse that led to the loss of their father.
As we are told early on, “Any man who loved an Owens woman was marked with tragedy.”
And so it goes for Kylie’s boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Mariduena), who falls into a coma after a traffic accident. Only then does Kylie discover the truth, a revelation that sends her on a trip to the UK to try and break this haunting spell.
This is where the film really starts to plummet, as Susanne Bier – who directed Bullock in the far more intriguing 2018 film Bird Box – takes us on a whistle-stop tour of tourist hotspots, from the Tower of London to a chocolate-box English countryside village complete with a red telephone box.
In pursuit of Kylie, Sally and Gillian soon run into Lee Pace’s rugged, inked-up hunk (or “Professor Tattoos” as Sally calls him, in one of the more amusing lines), an academic who studies magic and soon becomes a slightly forced love interest.

The big issue with Practical Magic 2 – aside from a deathly dull plot cooked up by original writer Akiva Goldsman along with Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel – is the sorcery itself.
Setting the film in the land of Harry Potter was, arguably, not the smartest move, since it automatically invites comparisons.
And while the first Practical Magic arrived before J.K. Rowling’s books were turned into a hugely successful movie franchise, this sequel feels uninspired next to the epic scale of the Harry Potter films.

Cast-wise, the underappreciated Pace injects something fresh, and it is a genuine pleasure to see Channing and Wiest back on screen. Bullock is always watchable, but Kidman’s flighty, flirty performance is something of a turn-off.
Maybe this witchy reunion is what fans wanted, but after nearly three decades, viewers will be left wishing for something far more magical.
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Joey King, Maisie Williams and Lee Pace also feature in this boring follow-up that falls short of the spellbinding 1998 original


Joey King, Maisie Williams and Lee Pace also feature in this boring follow-up that falls short of the spellbinding 1998 original.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Joey King, Maisie Williams and Lee Pace also feature in this boring follow-up that falls short of the spellbinding 1998 original

Joey King, Maisie Williams and Lee Pace also feature in this boring follow-up that falls short of the spellbinding 1998 original