Practical Magic was a minor hit back in 1997 and while a strong cast, wasn’t that memorable. In fact, before visiting the sequel, I had to revisit and watch the original. It’s a fairly sweet natured tale of witches that made more of an impact when it hit home entertainment than in the cinema. Now, nearly 30 years after the original, the Owen sisters are back in a movie that promised so much but delivers so little. In fact, if the first film wasn’t that memorable, this will be erased from the mind before the end of the year.

The curse that has haunted the Owen sisters, in which the men they love will die, is now going to affect the daughters of Sally, particularly her eldest, Kylie. She has fallen for a fellow student at her college, and when she announces she is in love with him, he suffers an accident that could be fatal, unless she can lift the curse. Heading off to England, Sally and Gillian are in hot pursuit.

When I say this had promise, I mean the original, while never groundbreaking, was entertaining enough, thanks to a dark direction from Griffin Dunne and a cast you know and love. That cast returns but this time, Danish director, Susannah Bier, who directed the mature romance, Love Is All You Need, takes the helm, and is based on the popular novel by Anne Hoffman. Where the film fails is the length, the script and the fact that these characters, while still fun to be with, are bogged down with clichés and overplotting.

Returning to the Owens world, where the neighbours have now accepted their witchcraft, life seems fine, with the sisters resigned to never falling in love. Yet Sally hasn’t told her daughters about the curse, and when Kylie brings her boyfriend home to meet the family, it raises concerns. None more so when he is hit by a car. This is all perfectly fine, but the plot starts losing itself when Kylie heads to England. Cue quaint country landscape, old-fashioned trains, small ceiling pubs, and the only thing missing is The Clash and London Calling!

Then we get the sisters meeting a male equivalent of the sisters, who Sally starts to fall for, but stops herself because she knows the outcome. It’s all very contrived and only exists to bring drama to an otherwise dull story. There are flashes of humour but not enough to keep the interest. Instead, it just keeps going and going and going, until you feel it’s been padded out within an inch of its life.

With the return of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the sisters, one of the high points of the previous film, you would hope that the writers would give them more scenes together where they can riff off each other. Instead, this time they don’t seem as connected, with Bullock using her gift for comic timing far better than Kidman’s ditsy Gillian. Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest are back but given very little to do, as is Maisie Williams, from Game of Thrones, as the daughter who works in a hospital and that all she seems to do. Joey King is given the bigger slice as Kylie and Lee Pace plays the man who wins sally’s heart, mainly for smouldering.

Practical Magic 2 is a lacklustre money-grabber. Like The Devil Wears Prada 2, it’s not enough to bring back characters we like just for the sake of it. There has to be a much better reason than this to get audiences to enjoy their antics.

2 out of 5

Director: Susanna Bier

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Joey King, Maisie Williams, Lee Pace, Solly McLeon, Ema Cavolli

Written by: Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, Kelly Marcel and (based on the novel) Alice Hoffman

Running Time: 130 mins

Cert: 12A

Release date: 11^th September 2026