In Practical Magic 2, Sally and Gilly Owens return with their love of margaritas and disdain for love. But this time, they’ll have to protect Sally’s daughters from their family curse that dooms any man who dares to fall in love with them. Some sincere sentiments of sisterhood aside, this cinematic potion has too much dark magic, innuendo and foul language to go down easily for families.
Some families are cursed with bad weather on vacations, or the unfortunate ability to kill any houseplant. The Owens family’s curse is much, much worse.
A quarter-century has passed since the events of the first Practical Magic, and sisters Sally and Gillian Owens are far removed from their body-burying antics. Sally’s daughters, Antonia and Kylie, are all grown up now and have been raised without the knowledge of their family’s heritage: The girls experienced a childhood unburdened by the fact that they come from a long line of witches, and they know nothing of the Owens family curse.
Any man who falls in love with a woman of this family will meet an untimely death, marked only by the sound of a “deathwatch” beetle. That’s a big burden to carry, not to mention the townsfolk are typically less than understanding when it comes to the family’s witchy abilities. Sally’s solution? Suppress the magic deep within herself and hide all of this from her two daughters.
What could go wrong?
Unbeknownst to Sally, daughter Kylie is falling in love with a charming young man named Gideon. By the time Sally gets to meet her daughter’s new boyfriend, it’s practically too late to warn Kylie of the curse.
Death makes its first attempt at Gideon’s life shortly after, forcing Sally to reveal the truth to her daughter. So after finding a mysterious book that may help her break the curse and save Gideon, Kylie sets out to do exactly that.
But Sally and Gilly know the dangers of using, or worse, misusing, witchcraft. Kylie has only known the truth of her family’s power for a few hours: How can she expect to wield it? And, as a familial web of secrets begins to unravel, how will she know who to trust?
Like their aunties before them (Jet and Franny), both Sally and Gilly, as well as Antonia and Kylie, have a strong sisterly bond. The sister pairs support each other and stick next to one another, even in tough circumstances. The family is close and loves each other dearly, and each of the Owens women proves herself willing to do almost anything (even risk her own life) for the ones she loves.
The film also sports a nice message about mother-daughter bonds. Although Kylie initially feels betrayed by her mother’s lies, Sally and Kylie share a sweet scene of forgiveness later in the film. Sally’s own story arc revolves around coming to terms with the fact that her daughters are now grown and less dependent on their mother.
One of the movie’s best moments occurs early on, when a family member reaches the end of her life. While this dredges up a lot of emotion, the family sticks together in her final moments, taking the time to celebrate the lifetime of memories they shared before she passes.
Jet takes a moment to tell Sally how proud of her she is, leaving Sally with the advice to “live a little, live a lot.” (It’s a sentiment that has about as much depth as you’d find written on some Hobby Lobby kitchen décor, but it’s a nice principle nonetheless.) Sally advises a troubled character that revenge is a grave you dig twice—once for your enemy, the other for yourself.
The use of all sorts of magic is nearly constant in this sequel. While this film features nothing quite on par with the exorcism of Practical Magic, there’s still quite a lot of witchcraft at play here.
Magic is used to spill drinks on people, knock objects (and people) over, bust open doors, shatter glass, light candles and float off rooftops. Characters throw each other around with spells and cause physical harm to one another. A sorcerer uses a sort of scrying glass and powder to form a map for Sally and Gilly. (After doing so, they are warned that certain places have power and can call out to people, luring them in.) Sally casts a spell over her daughters so they’ll forget about their magical heritage. Other incantations are used to protect and heal others.
Several scenes depict witches being tied to a stake. In one, the witch is surrounded by a burning pentagram. In another, the woman gets sentenced for allegedly putting a spell on a man. Other pagan symbolism comes in the form of a cursed book of spells, a voodoo-esque doll and some tattoos covering the torso and arms of a “professor of the arts.”
A death early in the film hints at some interesting ideas of where the Owens women believe people go after they die. An incantation done after the passing of this character reads almost like a prayer, with lines such as “bless her path, guard her sleep” and “rest without despair, still nearby, though we know not where.” The deceased’s family members report that they still feel their loved one’s presence even after her passing. Later in the film, one of those family members apparently sees her, waving at her from the afterlife. And the deceased also seem to light some candles as a sort of acknowledgement of their continued presence.
Multiple characters are plagued with a disturbing vision of a cloaked man reciting from a spell book. These brief flashes include occultic imagery, such as animal skulls, pentagrams and drops of blood on what appears to be an altar. Black smoke spills from the wounds of dark magic wielders rather than blood. (Gold smoke seeps from the wounds of the Owens sisters, perhaps indicating that their magic is of a more wholesome sort.)
Old scars left on the palms of Sally and Gilly glow in unison on a few occasions. We see some palm reading, and the “love lines” of the Owens women all appear to be broken. It is said that ravens are messengers between two worlds: life and death. After completing a ritual to unlock dark magic, a young witch sees a reflection of herself in a mirror where her skin appears pale and her eyes are blacked out. We learn that the Owens women can sometimes sense and see visions of the people they love the most. We’re told that one spell can only be broken if a witch is sacrificed. The sound and appearance of a deathwatch beetle precedes the untimely passing of a few different characters.
Two women wear angel wings as part of their costumes at a dinner party. A few tombstones in a graveyard feature crosses.
Gillian’s promiscuity was a big plot element in the first film; however, the sequel is mostly content with keeping her dalliances contained to lines of dialogue. That said, it seems her ever-changing roster of romantic partners is as boisterous as ever. We hear of at least a few men that she’s had recent connections with, including a bartender and a fellow referred to as “Hairy Dave.”
Gilly makes many remarks about Sally’s lack of “fun” in the dating world. Sally tells Gilly that, if nothing else, at least she never has to receive unsolicited pictures from strange men. Gillian tells a man that Sally has been repressed for years—this has a double connotation of the fact that Sally has hidden her magic and seemingly not slept with anyone since her second husband’s passing.
We hear further innuendos throughout the film, including a comment about “getting tongue,” “writing a thesis” on someone’s body and more. Sally jokes that the security agent who frisked her at the airport was “firm but intentional.”
The sisters accidentally stumble upon an unclothed man who is under a spell that has rendered himself temporarily paralyzed. While the camera doesn’t reveal any private parts, viewers see the rest of his torso—and both sisters get an eyeful. The sisters then attempt to break the spell, which involves placing a hand on “unmarked flesh.” Since the man is heavily tattooed, Gillian uses her head to indicate his groin area, but Sally covers that area with a towel and instead puts her hand on a clear part of his chest. Later on, after the man is clothed, Gilly looks at his clothed crotch multiple times.
Several couples kiss passionately. Intercourse is implied but not shown, as characters straddle each other and wake up the next morning unclothed but hidden by covers. After knocking a male character unconscious, Sally and Gilly hold him down to administer a drug that will keep him unconscious, with one sister stuck under him and the other on top of him.
A man puts his hand over Sally’s heart, holding her from behind—this moment is intimate but not sexual. The two hold hands, cuddle and dance closely on a few other occasions. A couple kisses at their own wedding. Several female characters wear cleavage-revealing outfits throughout the film.
Infidelity and children born out of wedlock serve as plot points in the film.
Speaking of those plot points, we are told that after getting a woman pregnant (one man says it was the result of rape), a monarch had that woman burned at the stake for “bewitching him.” Flashbacks show a fire lit around the woman as she’s tied up, and the audience is told that the woman’s young daughter witnessed this occur.
Most of the runtime revolves around how to break the Owens family curse, which has already taken two of Sally’s husbands—as well as an undisclosed number of men over the course of a few centuries. Sally and Gillian joke about the events of the first film, in which they buried a man in their backyard.
Although most of the violence is bloodless, there are a couple instances where characters intentionally slice open their fingers or palms for rituals or blood pacts. A cursed book burns a few different characters when they attempt to pick it up. A character under a hex writhes in pain as the magic is reversed.
A man says he intends to cut out a woman’s heart—an action that never comes to fruition. He does batter her up pretty good though, knocking her out by slamming her head into a wall. When he does this, a woman who is magically linked to her feels the blow and gets knocked to the ground as well. The man later says that he plans to kill both women. Characters incapacitate each other with magic and throw one another into walls and onto the ground. Someone gets stabbed in the chest with a needle-like apparatus, but survives. A character gets turned into brittle rock and blows away like ash.
In an act of self-sacrifice, a woman walks into a lake to break a spell, knowing that the act will kill her.
A character gets hit by a car, landing hard on the ground with a bloodied-up face. He survives, but he is in a coma for much of the movie. A man is knocked unconscious with a frying pan; another is hit hard with a large branch. It is said that everyone in a small town has a large dog and a shotgun at the ready.
Antonia and Kylie giggle as they recall their mother changing bedtime stories so that in every tale, the prince dies before he and the princess can fall in love. In a moment of high emotions, Sally declares that she wants to punch everyone in the face. Gilly recalls a moment from her childhood when she and Sally sent a hamster flying in a remote-control airplane—only to lose sight of the plane and, by extension, the hamster.
For much of the runtime, language is very mild—until some tense scenes in the back half of the film resurrect some foul words. One use of the f-word, along with a single use each of “a–,” “d–k,” “d–n” and “h—.” God’s name is flippantly misused nearly two dozen times as well.
One of the many motifs to carry over from the first film is that the Owens witches seem to love their booze. Margaritas are no longer restricted to midnight but seemingly all times of the day. Characters drink shooters of tequila, sip bourbon and have wine with dinner. Most any scene involving a sit-down conversation involves a form of alcohol, and Gilly is visibly drunk on a couple of occasions.
A character says that his mother drank herself to death. One person is said to be obsessed with champagne and conspiracy theories in equal measure. A woman gets drugged by a male character, although no physical harm is done to her in her incapacitated state.
Someone at a funeral asks for a “tongue sandwich,” and the Owens women are disturbed by the possibilities of what that could mean. Multiple characters break into houses that aren’t their own with little hesitation. There is a mention of a relative being barred from multiple businesses for her unusual (and sometimes illegal) behaviors. For instance, we hear she’s stolen multiple books from the library.
Sally and Gilly’s arguments can get heated, and shouting escalates between the sisters. A mother lies to her daughters and makes her family promise to lie to them as well. When the truth is revealed, one daughter tells her mother that she will “never trust her again.” Characters frequently discuss their familial trauma and the ongoing impact it has on them.
As Sally searches for Kylie, she quips, “How much trouble can she get into in one day?” Gillian, referencing her own youthful rebellion, responds, “I am not the person to ask that question to.”
Practical Magic 2 will likely please those who are already invested in the witchy world of the Owens family. While the film falls victim to some of the same issues that plague legacy sequels, it also offers some surprisingly sincere moments about the bonds of family. It encourages us to cherish moments with our loved ones while they’re with us in this life. And all things considered, the film feels marginally less dark than the first: Instead of using their powers to cover up a murder, the Owens sisters work to prevent the death of a young man. With that tonal shift—and the domestic violence subplot of the first film being dropped entirely—this sequel feels as though it weighs a bit lighter than its predecessor.
That’s not to say it gets a Plugged In approval for families, though.
While the slightly lighter tone is a welcome change, the film can verge on parody of itself at times. Viewers do get some genuinely sincere scenes, but they’re often mixed in with Sally and Gilly’s bumbling, tipsy antics.
Sally claims to want to avoid love at all costs, but she’s not very good at that. In two movies she has fallen for three men, making her resolve to stay single seem a bit confusing. Both films want to tout the notion that the bond of sisterhood is all these witches need, but between Sally’s widowhood and Gilly’s revolving door of suitors, the movies seem to accidentally imply that both women are in need of a man just as badly.
And while Practical Magic 2 feels less spiritually heavy, that doesn’t mean viewers should once again plunged into the vague, murky spirituality these films offer. The fact that its witchcraft derives inspiration from pagan rituals pushes it past nonsense spells and hexes. The imagery here involves blood rituals and pentagrams—which will likely be more than enough to have parents sweeping this film away, not riding their brooms to the theater. Mix in a smattering of profanities, some rather obvious innuendo and frequent drinking, and this cinematic potion will go down about as easy as a bat stew.
Jonah Parker’s first interaction with Plugged In came when he was just five years old, after his parents read a review for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and deemed the content too intense for him. What started out as a contentious relationship between Jonah and a staff of reviewers who knew not of his existence would later turn into an appreciation for the site’s ability to present media content in a way that was accurate and fair. Jonah enjoys analyzing how our entertainment echoes the creativity of our Creator while finding glimpses of Biblical truths within every genre. He believes that Robert Pattinson’s Batmobile is the perfect mix of cool and practical.
