“Practical Magic 2” (2026) is the sequel to “Practical Magic” (1998) and adapts Alice Hoffman’s 2021 novel, “The Book of Magic,” the fourth and final book in the series. Anyone that the Owens sisters love romantically dies so Gillian or Gilly (Nicole Kidman) sticks to having fun while Sally (Sandra Bullock) is done with love (again). Sally’s daughters, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams), joke about the curse, but Kylie is shocked that it is real when a car hits her boyfriend, Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), and he is on death’s door. Determined to save Gideon’s life, Kylie heads to their ancestral country to reverse the curse with Sally and Gilly close behind. Taking the advice of Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest), the sisters stop to request help from disgraced former professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace) only to discover that they must save him from a binding spell. Can the Owens women lift the curse, or will they lose Kylie to the dark side? If “Insidious: The Red Door” (2023) meets “Witchboard” (2024) had softer lighting, a bevy of actors far more talented than the material, a heap of fanservice and only used horror sparingly with the real focus on sororal, romantic and family love, then you would get this light mainstream delight that tackles loss as if it only needed a light dusting to resolve. I preferred it to the original because the sequel was more cohesive.
If you were a fan of Sally’s shop or wanted an update on how the impromptu members of the emergency coven from the denouement of the 1998 film are doing, keep it pushing because you will not get those answers here. “Practical Magic 2” recycles a few storylines to jumpstart the tension between Sally and her daughters, but it kind of makes sense since there is an update on what happened to Sally’s last love interest from the first movie, Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn). Bullock has not been in a movie since 2022 so if you are a fan, you will be relieved to know that she does not miss a beat and still has that way of being awkward then for a split second, side-eye the camera with a slick, knowing look. If you are not a fan, move on because her character is the protagonist trying to get back in touch with her power and life. Sally is a woman afraid of her power.
Gilly was always an afterthought of a character more defined as a party girl in the margins. Whie Kidman has always been a strong actor, she has grown heaps since the Nineties. It is so nice to see her play the comedic relief in such an unforced, organic way while also injecting enough nuanced emotions to make the character more substantial than was on the page. Gilly was never as talented as Sally when it came to the craft, but “Practical Magic 2” finds her happily continuing the tradition and holding things down. She yearns for Sally to own her power and for the Sally’s daughters to take a more active role in the family tradition. The chemistry between Bullock and Kidman is unbelievable even if the movie has them sniping at each other from the top.
Comparatively Joey and Williams feel forced though they give it their all. If the franchise is hoping to hand the mantle to them once Bullock and Kidman no longer feel like holding it up anymore, they will not be able to assume the mantle. It is like playing to the back of the theater, but there are only two rows. Antonia is an up-and-coming neurosurgeon at Mass General, and Williams is so underutilized that it almost would have been better for the script to arrange for her character to have a legitimate reason to disappear after the reintroduction instead of stick around at the margins. Kylie and Gideon are the main motivation for the story’s momentum. King may be a veteran actor, but with fewer lines than most of the characters, Maridueña steals every scene and possibly Kidman’s superpower of wordlessly beaming love at a relative stranger. He is so convincing as a man in complete love that you can practically hear the beetle with one look at his face. He makes a meal out of a morsel.
Meanwhile Wiest and Channing, who has not appeared in a movie for four years, are back as the heart of “Practical Magic 2,” and their characters have mostly ditched the period costume drama for more contemporary flowy looks. It felt as if their lines were conceived in preparation for their future in-memoriam tribute segments (hopefully not to be aired for many decades to come). The sentimentality is laid on thick, but it mostly works. As always, if they had more screentime, it would be a better movie, but likely shorter if the cowriters Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel did not rely on Franny (Channing) slacking and not following her sister’s instructions immediately for the movie to exist and the action to shift from Massachusetts to the United Kingdom.
All is forgiven because then Pace would not get anyscreentime. Whenever Pace appeared, the audience would either giggle because he is so hot or is forced to utter the most ridiculous dialogue that is supposed to pass for spitting game. Wright only has eyes for Sally and holds the keys to the family history’s mythology. If you think about this plot point too hard, you may find yourself asking why he was not consulted earlier to stop the curse. Stop that! Bad movie goer! No thinking!
Even though it was not the point, “Practical Magic 2” did better with the special effects, the family history and the mythology than the first movie. Even though the point of the story is sisterhood, it is aggravating that when one man wields power, he is more powerful than one witch with more experience, but whatever. It is just disappointing that after building up Sally as a powerful force, they do not give her enough bad ass moments. Instead, power is about the strength of the family’s bonds and the power in their hearts and the colors of the wind and the wind beneath their wings. Well, you get the picture. Cheese! There is one scene when Kylie looks at her reflection and sees herself with black eyes, but the movie fails to elaborate on that theme. All of it is very heavy handed in terms of the gendered and class cautionary message about powers but still satisfying, especially considering the tone of the denouement, it could have gotten so weighty that it would dissatisfy the fans of the prior.
If “Practical Magic 2” has a problem, it is the copious amounts of naked product placements: American Airlines, Tinder and Ninja. Still with a runtime of over two hours, it did not feel like torture and moved quickly, but as someone who found the first movie to be baffling with no rhyme or reason, it may be a bad sign for anyone who actually enjoyed the effervescent nonsense of the first film and do not want a lite horror movie with commercial appeal. It is just nice to have a semblance of a story as opposed to throwing a bunch of crap to the wall and then see what sticks.
