If your watchlist has been missing a heavy pour of tequila and some accidental manslaughter, rejoice: the midnight margaritas are officially back on ice.
To catch you up, the cult classic original (and excellent) 1998 Practical Magic gave us Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gillian Owens, two delightfully chaotic witch sisters trying to outrun a pesky family curse that tends to kill off any man who falls in love with them. Toss in a dreamy Victorian house, a couple of iconic witchy aunts, and a frantic midnight resurrection, and you’ve got a bona fide classic.
Amazingly, it has been nearly three decades, 28 years, to be exact, since we last saw the Owens sisters sweeping up potion ingredients while they sip on margaritas. Yes, we feel old too. Hollywood has finally decided to break whatever curse was stopping more of these sisters stories from being told, meaning the long-awaited Practical Magic 2 is casting its spell in theaters this week. Based on Alice Hoffman’s 2021 novel The Book of Magic, the sequel finds Sally and Gillian heading across the pond to England to dig into the shadowy roots of their lineage and save the next generation from their family curse.
The best part? The coven is largely intact. Bullock and Kidman are back in magical action, alongside franchise royalty Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest returning as Aunts Franny and Jet. They’re joined by a fresh batch of magical blood, including Joey King and Maisie Williams stepping in as Sally’s grown daughters, plus Lee Pace as a male magician. Susanne Bier is taking over directing duties, promising plenty of moody atmosphere to match the nostalgia.
Clear your calendar, dust off your broomsticks, and get ready to find out if the family curse finally meets its match, or if we’ll all just be crying into another round of margs.
– The Plus Ones
