Another film I caught this evening on my new DISH satellite setup (for probably the 10th or 11th time since it was released) was PRACTICAL MAGIC with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. This is one movie I don't mind watching over and over as I love the chemistry between them as sisters. (I'm dark haired and my younger sister is a strawberry blond, I'm more bookish, she's more outgoing, I stayed at home, she travelled all over and so on - may be why I identify a bit, eh?...)
This is an example of a movie where I've never read the book it's based on. Now that I have all the actors firmly in mind as each of the characters, I would find it hard to go back and read the original material without having their faces and nuances pop up in my mind, coloring the reading and possibly losing the story's original flavor. (I also find the opposite true - read a book first, get certain images in mind, then find that the movie doesn't match my 'own' version in my head...)
PRACTICAL MAGIC is about what would normally be a thriller topic, but the characters here come first with their witchcraft being an extension of who they are and do rather than the entire focus of the film. It's funny and heartbreaking, dramatic and scary, with a nice touch of irony, each in good balance with the other. The way the movie handles the multiple generations, from the not-so-crazy-as-they-appear-at-first aunts, played by Stockard Channing & Dianne Wiest, down to the sisters, Bullock & Kidman, and on to Bullock's daughters is great, too, with each a reflection of the previous, sometimes mirrored, sometimes reversed, but all steeped in magic.
This is one film I keep in my DVD library so I can pull it out whenever I want a nice witchy warm feeling with what feels like old friends (and family). =)
(1998) Rated PG-13 for some violence, intense thematic elements and sensuality
Starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Goran Visnjic, Aiden Quinn
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