Practical Magic Explores the Magical and Impractical Reality of Love

Based on the book by the same name, Practical Magic explores the uncontrollable and impractical nature of good and bad love. Directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing, the 1998 movie begins with an explanation for why the Owens women, a multi-generational family of witches, are seemingly unlucky in love. Scorned by unrequited love, an ancestor (Caprice Benedetti) casts a spell to spare future generations of her family from experiencing the heartbreak that she feels but unintentionally curses every man with whom an Owens woman falls in love to die an untimely and bizarre death.

With generations of women building background for this story, the plot focuses on Sally (Bullock) and Gillian (Kidman), sisters who were raised by their Aunts Jet (Wiest) and Fran (Channing) when their father died an untimely and bizarre death and their mother passed away of a broken heart at the loss of her true love. Desperate to never experience such pain, Sally casts a spell that pre-determines her true love as a man with an impossible combination of traits and features. Gillian is romanced by the mystery of love and leaves home early to adventurously follow her heart wherever it leads her. The sisters cut each other's palms and clasp hands to create a blood bond between them before they part.

During their separation, Sally meets and marries a local man (Mark Feuerstein) with the unknown assistance of her aunts' magical intervention. After she has two daughters with him, she allows herself to fall in love and soon he is met with an untimely and bizarre death. Heartbroken, Sally moves her daughters and herself back into the Owens family home where her aunts still live and plummets into a deep depression. Gillian senses her sister's heartbreak and crosses the miles to be with her, coaxing her from her depression and inspiring her to move on with her life.

When Gillian returns to her adventurous living, the relationship that she'd been having with a mysterious man, the dangerous Jimmy Angelov (Goran Visnjik), turns abusive and she reaches out to her sister for help. When Sally arrives to rescue Gillian, Jimmy kidnaps them both with death threats. In an attempt to sedate him so they could escape, the sisters accidentally kill Jimmy in an untimely and bizarre way. Panicking about what consequences they could face, they cast a spell to return Jimmy to life but skip a step because it's gross. When Jimmy returns to life, he attempts to kill Gillian, which prompts the sisters to kill him again in another untimely and bizarre way. Unfortunately, since Sally and Gillian had skipped an important step in the spell, Jimmy Angelov is not resting in peace and proceeds to haunt the house, targeting Gillian. Frustrated with Sally and Gillian's refusal to discuss the odd occurrences, Aunts Jet and Fran leave the house and instruct the sisters the clean up their own mess.

Situations become more complicated when Officer Gary Hallet (Aiden Quinn) shows up to question the sisters about the where-about of Jimmy Angelov. Jimmy was a suspected serial killer who had murdered several women with whom he'd had intimate and abusive relationships. Even though Gillian manages to brush off the officer's inquiries, Sally finds it impossible to lie to him and her curious reactions spark Gary's curiosity to stay in town to investigate further. As Gary investigates, Jimmy continues to compromise the sisters' sanity and stability with unexplainable incidents that provide Gary with clues that the sisters knew Jimmy.

When Sally discovers that Gary has the impossible combination of traits and features that she'd cited in a spell she'd cast in her childhood in a desperate attempt to avoid true love, she and Gary admit the unexplainable love that they have for each other. In her fear of Owens women curse, Sally pushes him away. In Gary's desire to protect Sally from the reaches of the law, he leaves town with decidedly inconclusive information on the Jimmy Angelov case.

Situations continue to spiral out of control and Jimmy possesses Gillian's body. The aunts return just in time to organize a coven of non-magical women to assist in a banishing spell that will remove Jimmy from Gillian's body and return him to the grave. After hours of exhausting and seemingly unsuccessful banishing, Sally attempts an unique and individual approach to appeal to Jimmy and rescue Gillian. With Jimmy's favorite tequila, she tempts Jimmy to the forefront of Gillian's consciousness and then reopens the wounds on her and her sister's hands, clasping them as they'd done years earlier and re-establishing their blood bond. The power of the bond shoves Jimmy from Gillian's body and disempowers the multi-generational curse. Gillian returns to perfect health and her thirst for an adventurous and dangerous life is quenched! Jimmy's spirit is returned to his grave site where he finally rests in peace.

Months have passed when the sisters receive a letter from Officer Gary Hallet explaining that the Jimmy Angelov case has been closed and his death has been determined to be an accident with no other people involved. This brings closure for the families of the victims who were killed by Jimmy and keeps both Sally and Gillian from being responsible for crimes related to both of Jimmy's untimely and bizarre deaths.

With the curse broken and the case closed, Sally casts a spell that calls out for Gary and they live happily ever after.

Practical Magic can be purchased at Amazon.com, Tower.com and Family Video.com.