Practical Magic is a 1998 American fantasy romantic comedy drama film based on the 1995 novel by Alice Hoffman. The film was directed by Griffin Dunne and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing and Aidan Quinn. Bullock and Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, descended from a long line of witches. Raised by their aunts after their parents' death from a family curse, the sisters are taught the uses of practical magic as they grow up. Years later, they must use their magic to destroy the evil spirit of Gillian's abusive boyfriend before it kills them.
Practical Magic was released by Warner Bros. on October 16, 1998, and grossed $94.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $60–75 million. The film received poor reviews from critics and has since gained a cult following. A sequel, Practical Magic 2, was released on September 10, 2026.
Plot
In Massachusetts, the Owens family have been persecuted for over three centuries because their ancestor Maria Owens survived an attempted execution for witchcraft. Heartbroken when the father of her unborn child left her banished on an offshore island, Maria cast a spell to prevent herself from ever falling in love again. The spell developed into a curse upon Maria's descendants, dooming any man an Owens woman loves.
In the present, Sally and Gillian Owens are taken in by their aunts Frances and Jet after their parents succumb to the Owens curse. As children, Sally and Gillian are frequently ridiculed by the town's schoolchildren. Upon witnessing their aunts cast a love spell for a woman obsessed with her beloved, Sally casts a spell on herself to ensure she will only fall in love with a man who possesses certain seemingly impossible traits, with the intention of never falling in love. Witnessing the same incident, Gillian cannot wait to fall in love. As teenagers, Gillian elopes with her boyfriend and leaves for Los Angeles. Before she departs, she and Sally use a blood spell to swear to always be faithful to one another, grow old together, and die at the same time.
Gillian spends the next decade moving from relationship to relationship across the country, while back in Massachusetts, Sally meets and marries a local named Michael. They have two daughters, Kylie and Antonia. After a truck fatally hits Michael, Sally and her girls move in with the aunts. Learning that they secretly cast a love spell on her so that she could marry and be happy, Sally vows that the aunts will never teach her daughters magic.
Gillian tells Sally her involvement with a man named Jimmy Angelov, a powerful presence whom she often sedates with small amounts of belladonna. Gillian eventually phones Sally and asks her to come get her. Soon after Sally arrives to rescue her now abused sister, Angelov takes them hostage in his car. Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila to knock him unconscious, but inadvertently kills him. The sisters take Jimmy's body back to the aunts' house, where they resurrect him with a forbidden spell, but he begins to choke Gillian again and Sally kills him for the second time. The sisters bury Angelov's remains in the garden. Sally, Gillian, and the aunts have a midnight drinking session in which Jimmy's tequila seems to be influencing them to turn against each other; the aunts leave home the following morning, leaving a message to the sisters to "clean up their own mess".
State investigator Gary Hallett arrives from Tucson, Arizona, in search of Jimmy, who is revealed to be a serial killer. Gillian attempts to separate them with a potion, but Kylie and Antonia realize he is the man from Sally's childhood spell and they dispose of the pancake syrup containing the potion. After Gillian and Sally fight, a distraught Sally confesses to Gary, only to discover he is the impossible man from her spell. Unable to deny their attraction, the two kiss, which makes Sally ultimately stop and flee, and then runs towards her home knowing that Gillian is in trouble.
Arriving, Sally realizes that Jimmy's spirit has entered Gillian's body. Gary arrives and witnesses Jimmy's spirit materialize before him and, after Jimmy attacks him, uses his silver badge to thwart Angelov's spirit from possessing him. Sally tells Gary he is there because of her spell, the feelings they have for each other are not real, and the family curse will kill him if they pursue a relationship. Gary replies that curses only work if one believes in them and that he wished for her too, and returns to Tucson.
Jimmy uses Gillian again in an attempt to kill Sally before Frances and Jet return. Realizing she must embrace magic to save her sister, Sally asks the local townswomen to form a coven and exorcise Jimmy's spirit. They exorcise Angelov's spirit and permanently exile him, and hope that this might also mean the end of the Owens curse.
Gary clears the sisters of any suspicion in Jimmy's case and returns to Massachusetts to be with Sally. Sally chooses love with Gary despite the risks of an uncertain future. The townsfolk finally welcome the Owens women into the community, as witches, and witness the family's annual Halloween tradition of flying down from the roof.
Cast
Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens, a witch who becomes widowed Camilla Belle as young Sally Owens Nicole Kidman as Gillian Owens, Sally's free-spirited sister Lora Anne Criswell as young Gillian Owens Stockard Channing as Frances, Sally and Gillian's aunt Dianne Wiest as Jet, Sally and Gillian's aunt Goran Visnjic as Jimmy Angelov, Gillian's lover Aidan Quinn as Gary Hallet, an investigator Evan Rachel Wood as Kylie, Sally's elder daughter Alexandra Artrip as Antonia, Sally's younger daughter Mark Feuerstein as Michael, Sally's husband, and Kylie and Antonia's father Caprice Benedetti as Maria Owens, the first witch in the Owens family Margo Martindale as Linda Bennett, another friend of Sally's, who also works at her shop Chloe Webb as Carla, Sally's good friend Martha Gehman as Patty, one of the town women who responds to Sally's call for help Lucinda Jenney as Sara, one of the town women Mary Gross as Debbie Peter Shaw as Jack, Sally and Gillian's father Caralyn Kozlowski as Regina, Sally and Gillian's mother
Production Practical Magic was filmed in part on an artificial set in California. Because the film's producers decided the house was a big part of the depiction of the Owens culture, a house to accurately represent that vision was built on San Juan Island in the state of Washington. While much of the set from California was brought to that location and placed inside the house, it took nearly a year to perfect the image of the house and the interior. The house, actually only a shell with nothing inside, was built only for this filming and was torn down after filming was completed. The small town scenes were filmed in downtown Coupeville, Washington, a Victorian-era seaside port town located on the south side of Penn Cove on Whidbey Island. Nicole Kidman's work on Practical Magic and her ex-husband Tom Cruise's work on Mission: Impossible 2 were respectively delayed due to production of Eyes Wide Shut taking much longer than expected.
The film's production design was led by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of the design studio Roman and Williams. They created the film’s richly detailed sets, including the Owens family home, and designed many of the props by hand. According to Standefer and Alesch, they also designed the film’s distinctive spellbook prop, which features original hand-drawn illustrations by Alesch. Standefer has stated, “Stephen and I devoted ourselves to that. We made every little thing in the film, down to the tincture jars and pressed flowers,” adding that Alesch “did incredible etchings of plants that you can see all around the dining room.”
Director Griffin Dunne said he originally had a darker vision for the film. The scene with Sally and Gilly inserting needles into Jimmy was supposed to be much more disturbing and the domestic violence plot line was more intense, but the studio cut the darker material. He expressed interest in a director's cut.
According to Sandra Bullock in the DVD commentary, while filming the scene where the Owens women are drunk and slinging insults, the actresses actually got drunk on very bad tequila brought by Kidman.
The cast further stated in the film's commentary that they felt supernatural elements of the house started to affect them. Both the cast and crew claimed they heard supernatural noises while filming the coven scene at the end of the film. For the final scene with all of the townspeople at the Owens home, the entire population of the town where filming took place was invited to show up in costume and appear as townsfolk.
Music
Composer Michael Nyman's score for the film was abruptly replaced with music by Alan Silvestri for the theatrical release. This last-minute change resulted in the release of two soundtracks, although as primarily a compilation album only the two tracks of newly created material were changed. A 50-track demo (the last two tracks being "Convening the Coven" and "Maria Owens") of Nyman's score has been circulating among fans as a bootleg. The complete Nyman score runs 62:30 and contains music that would later appear, in altered form, in Ravenous and The Actors, as well as a bit of his stepwise chord progression theme from Out of the Ruins/String Quartet No. 3/Carrington/The End of the Affair/The Claim. "Convening the Coven", though not "Maria Owens", was subsequently reissued on The Very Best of Michael Nyman: Film Music 1980–2001, and music that uses material related to this piece has not been used elsewhere. "Convening the Coven" became "City of Turin" on The Glare.
Singer Stevie Nicks headlined the soundtrack's published advertisements. The lead single was "If You Ever Did Believe", a song Nicks had originally written in the 1970s for Fleetwood Mac. After the song did not make the track list for Rumours, Nicks allowed Louise Goffin to record it for her 1981 album. The Practical Magic soundtrack marked the first time Nicks released her own version of the song. Nicks also recorded a new version of her song "Crystal". Both songs feature Sheryl Crow on back-up vocals.
Track listing "If You Ever Did Believe" – Stevie Nicks "This Kiss" – Faith Hill "Got to Give It Up (Pt.1)" – Marvin Gaye "Is This Real?" – Lisa Hall "Black Eyed Dog" – Nick Drake "A Case of You" – Joni Mitchell "Nowhere and Everywhere" – Michelle Lewis "Always on My Mind" – Elvis Presley "Everywhere" – Bran Van 3000 "Coconut" – Harry Nilsson "Crystal" – Stevie Nicks "Practical Magic" – Alan Silvestri / "Convening the Coven" – The Michael Nyman Orchestra "Amas Veritas" – Alan Silvestri / "Maria Owens" – The Michael Nyman Orchestra
Certifications
Reception
Box office Practical Magic opened at #1 with $13.1 million in ticket sales, beating Antz, Bride of Chucky and Beloved. In Australia, the film debuted at the top of the box office ahead of Ronin and The Waterboy, making $1.6 million in its first weekend. The film went on to gross $94.4 million worldwide, on a production budget of $60–75 million.
Critical response