NEW YORK (OSV News) — Although its plot centers on a family of friendly witches, the romantic drama “Practical Magic 2” (Warner Bros.) involves no advocacy for the dark arts. They simply exist as part of the fanciful premise. Instead, the film’s appeal, like that of its 1998 predecessor, is meant to lie in its portrayal of strong female bonding amid adversity.
One hint that the occult element is not meant to be taken seriously is the running joke in screenwriters Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel’s script about the clumsiness one character perpetually displays when trying to exercise her gift of telekinesis. Shades of Aunt Clara on ABC-TV’s “Bewitched.”
Based, once again, on a book by Alice Hoffman — in this case, her 2021 novel “The Book of Magic” — the latest installment relishes the comedy to be found in such small details. Yet it also sees much of its cast desperately trying to break a 300-year-old curse.
As the result of a malediction pronounced against them by an ancestor, any time a female member of the Massachusetts-based Owens family professes her love for a man, he dies not long afterward.
Among those struggling against this legacy are sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman). As the latter succinctly puts it, “We’re Owens women. Love is our undoing.”
Both siblings have learned to express their affection in deeds rather than words. But Sally goes further, casting a spell on her two daughters, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams), to make them forget that magic is the clan’s trademark enterprise.
This ultimately does no good. Kylie falls in love with Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), and no sooner has she murmured those three little words than he’s hit by a car and hospitalized on life support. Gillian forces Sally to tell the truth, a rift forms, and Kylie starts looking for a counter-spell so Gideon will live.
She finds it in The Book of Raven, a text that had belonged to her late great-aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest) who eventually bequeathed it to her sister Franny (Stockard Channing). The volume’s directions send Kylie to England, and Sally and Gillian follow in hot pursuit.
Once in the U.K., Kylie finds Tom (Solly McLeod), a farmhand who understands her but is not all he seems to be. Meanwhile, acting on advice from Aunt Franny, Sally and Gillian seek help from academic Ian Wright (Lee Pace). He turns out not to be of much use beyond providing someone for the sisters to bicker about.
All the running around and smoky incantations — carried out under the direction of Susanne Bier — build to an unexpectedly sentimental, yet ethically tangled, conclusion.
While the wrap-up is meant to present an example of self-sacrificing love, it also involves an act that cannot be justified in the abstract. Given the nature of the genre to which the movie belongs, though, no message about life in the real world is likely intended.
The film contains occult themes, fleeting gore, a morally ambiguous death, an implied nonmarital sexual encounter and a single rough term. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Read More Movie & Television Reviews
Copyright © 2026 OSV News
