Practical Magic

Sisters Sally and Gillian Owens (Bullock and Kidman) come from a long line of New England witches under an ancestral curse: any man who loves an Owens woman must die. While aunts Jet and Frances (Wiest and Channing) live happily without romance, serious Sally wants more and ends up with a beloved corpse. Sexy Gillian, meanwhile, settles for Jimmy (Visnjic), a charismatic drifter who mistreats her. Sally comes to the rescue - sort of - and a handsome police officer (Quinn) is soon on her trail. This is a film with neither heart nor mind. Adapted from Alice Hoffman's bestseller, it substitutes set pieces for drama and music for dialogue. Bullock and Kidman are in hammy overdrive as the chalk-and-cheese siblings; ditto the talented team of Wiest and Channing. Poor Quinn, though, is stuck playing a sensitive bimbo.