The 1998 classic Practical Magic is the story of two sisters, Sally and Gillian Owens, played
by Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, who come from a long line of witches.
The film is a staple in the genre of '90s witch classics, and, while many kids have
watched the movie, there's a lot in the film that young viewers probably didn't notice.
Everyone loves a cool aunt, especially one who will give you a ride to the mall and totally
let you bum a cigarette.
But Practical Magic made everyone wish they had an Aunt Frances and an Aunt Jet in their
lives.
From the moment Aunt Frances tells young Sally and Gillian…
"In this house, we have chocolate cake for breakfast…"
…we knew these aunts were going to be the coolest.
They're sassy, their outfits and hair can't be beat, and that margarita night is the epitome
of cool aunt vibes.
But don't let their positions as resident cool aunts make you forget about another super
cool Practical Magic aunt, Gillian.
Gillian is Sally's sister, and her daughters' aunt, and she's wild and fun like any cool
aunt should be.
Sure, she may have been pretty absent from the girls' lives in the beginning, but her
good times hanging out and partying by the pool just makes this cool aunt even cooler.
In Practical Magic, Sally, spoiler alert, accidentally kills Gillian's boyfriend Jimmy
by poisoning him with belladonna.
Realizing what's happened, the sisters bring Jimmy back to life.
Once alive, Jimmy tries to strangle Gillian, and Sally hits him over the head with a frying
pan, killing him again.
But the real trouble starts when Detective Gary Hallet shows up.
He's looking for Jimmy, and Sally and Gillian can't explain why they have Jimmy's car or
ring, though they scramble to keep what happened to Jimmy a secret.
But what many viewers might not have realized is that the sisters could've cleared the whole
thing up if they'd simply called the police after they killed Jimmy the second time.
Since it was self-defense, we doubt Sally would have been arrested for this act.
Sure, there might have also been a deadly amount of belladonna in Jimmy's system, but
there probably wouldn't be a way to prove Gillian or Sally put the lethal dose in his
drink.
Practical Magic is filled with sadness, but what else would you expect from a movie in
which one of the central issues is a family curse that kills loved ones?
But Sally Owens seems to have the worst time of anyone in the movie.
First, her parents die, and she and her sister, Gillian, are sent to live in a town where
other kids bully them for being witches.
Then, her sister leaves in the middle of the night and doesn't come back until years later.
"I feel like I'm never gonna see you again."
"Of course you're gonna see me again, we're gonna grow old together.
It's gonna be you and me, living in a big house, these two old biddies with all these
cats."
After that, her husband, whom she describes as a man she "just can't stop kissing," dies
tragically.
Already, her life seems to be falling apart when Gillian comes back into town, with a
scary boyfriend, Jimmy, in tow.
Sally has to protect her sister by killing Jimmy and covering up his murder, and, in
the process, watches Gillian almost die multiple times.
And if that wasn't enough, she also has to deal with the conflicting and painful feelings
of wanting to be with Gary Hallet and the fear that her love could literally kill him.
Basically, Sally Owens needs a hug.
One great thing about Practical Magic is that it features so many strong women.
While young viewers might not have registered the major feminist vibes, it's clear to adults
that this movie made sure to include strong female characters.
Sally Owens is strong as hell, running a business and keeping things together at home after
her husband dies.
Meanwhile, Aunt Frances and Aunt Jet are full of wisdom and confidence.
And Gillian is a feminist icon with her sexually progressive attitude.
But that's not all, folks!
At the end of the movie, all the women in the town come together to banish Jimmy's spirit
from Gillian in an epic exorcism.
Though some of these townswomen weren't supportive of Sally and Gillian before, in the end, they
do the right thing and come together to help the sisters out.
This film is filled with strong women who get things done and support one another.
When Gary Hallet first shows up to investigate missing person Jimmy in Practical Magic, Sally
is worried.
She tells Gillian…
"There's a cop downstairs and he's looking for Jimmy and he wants to talk to you and
I think I'm having a heart attack."
And Sally is worried for good reason.
She killed Jimmy, twice, and she and Gillian buried his body in their yard.
If Hallet were to find Jimmy's body, Sally and Gillian could be arrested and sent to
prison.
Yikes!
Luckily, Hallet is the worst investigator ever.
Not only does he spend all his time reading and re-reading Sally's letter to Gillian about
how she wants someone to love her, which, for the record, contains no evidence related
to Jimmy's disappearance at all, but then he makes out with his lead suspect.
In the end, he claims Jimmy's death was accidental, so that ultimately he and Sally could get
together.
While Practical Magic might be a pretty great movie, the ending is pretty, well, iffy.
Sure, it concludes with a happy ending: Gillian doesn't have an evil spirit living inside
her, Sally finds love, and the town is nicer to the Owens family.
But there's something that just doesn't make any sense.
During Gillian's exorcism, there's a burst of light and the face of Maria, the sisters'
ancestor who started the family curse, can be seen.
This is presumably meant to suggest that perhaps their magic was so powerful that it ended
the curse.
And indeed, it seems that Sally thinks the curse has ended because, in the last scene
when she and her family prepare to gently descend after jumping from the roof, she muses...
"Was it our joined hands that finally lifted Maria's curse?
I'd like to think so."
Plus, since Gary Hallet is there watching them fly, he clearly hasn't died yet.
So the curse might just be lifted.
But it took Michael, Sally's first husband, years to be struck down by the curse.
How does Sally know the curse was lifted?
And why would joining hands and banishing a spirit have anything to do with the curse?
It just doesn't make sense.
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