A family of witches. A picturesque Massachusetts house. A legendary curse. A dead husband. At the start of “Practical Magic 2” — the well-anticipated but not exactly long-overdue sequel to the 1998 cult classic “Practical Magic” — the lives of the Owens sisters, Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman), look nearly identical to the first film. But surely, the sequel will shake things up. Who ever heard of a major movie studio throwing $75 million at a follow-up that serves no purpose other than capitalizing on learned nostalgia, exacerbated by social media clip farming and seasonal wistfulness? Why, that would be outrageous!
As if this knee-jerk response were anticipated, Sally reassures the audience that what they came to see will be different than what transpired before. “What’s a good story if things end up the way they began?” she ponders over the narration in the film’s opening sequence, itself a nod to how the first movie begins. Funny, as I watched the sequel’s narrative pieces aimlessly move around the board — following almost the same path they did nearly 30 years ago but without any of the aesthetic charm — I spent the entirety of “Practical Magic 2” wondering the same thing.
