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| The two female stars send catty eyes from this playful poster for Griffin Dunne's Practical Magic |
Two sisters who are (naturally) diametric opposites return as adults to their witch aunts, when the one sister's happiness has suddenly ended, and the other sister has fallen in love with a dubious Bulgarian.
Practical Magic is written by Adam Brooks (Beloved (1998)), Akiva Goldsman (Winter's Tale (2014)) and Robin Swicord (Matilda (1996)), adapting Alice Hoffman's (Second Nature (1994)) same-titled 1995 novel, and directed by Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love (1997)).
It is a strange film to look back on, and in today's Hollywood environment also incredible as a strong constellation of almost only female stars in a film without a strong pre-existing IP, made on a gigantic budget. Sandra Bullock (Speed (1994)) impresses, mostly, however, by making such an outlandish universe as this concrete and seemingly believe in it. As a viewer I didn't buy a second of it, but Practical Magic has a certain bizarre attraction in its changes from horror to humor to romance, changes that it performs without much success.
The witches are good women, whose power is embraced by their surrounding society here in a film with high production values that best case don't help it, and worst case ruined it.
Related posts:
Griffin Dunne: 2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Fierce People (2005) - Wittenborn and Dunne's savagely under-appreciated coming-of-age gem
An American Werewolf in London (1981) - Landis' great, funny, scary werewolf favorite (actor)
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 75 mil. $
Box office: 68.3 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.91 times its cost)
[Practical Magic was released 16 October (North America, India) and runs 104 minutes. Nicole Kidman (Dogville (2003)) was paid 6 mil. $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from February - May 1998 in Washington State and in California. The film opened #1 to a 13.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3), grossing 46.7 mil. $ (68.4 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Dunne returned with Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000). Bullock returned in Welcome to Hollywood (1998); Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Practical Magic is rotten at 23 % with a 4.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Practical Magic?
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