Practical Magic

Y’all better brace yourselves, as this will be a long movie review because I also wanted to post it on Substack (it’s also spoiler free until the end, but I put a warning along the way) If you’re reading it, just know it means a lot to me, and I promise to try and make it worthwhile. Practical Magic isn’t a ‘silly witch movie’, it goes far beyond that category. Practical Magic is a movie about womanhood and the empowerment of women, self-acceptance, and love in its many forms. The film thrives in the complexity and layered personalities of the Owens sisters, which shows the variety of womanhood. No character is just smart or just beautiful, because no character is confined to a stereotype. Ancestry & Beginnings The movie starts by sharing parts of Maria Owens’s story. She is Sally and Gillian’s ancestor who survived being hanged for witchcraft, and after that, she was exiled while she was pregnant.  She waited a long time for her lover to rescue her, but he never came. To protect herself from pain and agony, she casted a spell on herself so that she would never fall in love again.  Sadly, that spell became a curse that followed all men who would ever love an Owens woman, leading them to death. And that’s what happened to Sally and Gillian’s father. The day the curse reached their father, their mother (Regina Owens) heard a deathwatch beetle, which is a significant detail later in the movie. After the death of her husband, Regina died of a broken heart, leaving little Gillian and Sally to move in with their aunts. After the girls find out the truth about their mother, the aunts try to cheer them up by practicing spells.  After some time, while they were still practicing, the doorbell rings and a woman comes. The aunts ask them to stay right where they are and keep practicing, but of course, kids don’t listen.  The woman who came pays the aunts to cast a love spell on a man, and they do so while Gilly and Sally watch from the stairs. Now, the first parallel between the sisters comes.  Sally states how she hopes she’ll never fall in love, while Gilly says that she can’t wait to fall in love. After that, we see Sally summoning a true love spell upon herself, creating a man that cannot possibly exist, giving him strange qualities so that she can never fall in love(very important scene for later on in the movie)Because if he doesn’t exist, she’ll never die of a broken heart like her mother Years pass, and the bond between the sisters is unbreakable, as they are both the most important person to each other. They rely on each other, their love and support being infinite.  As an only child who only ever relied on herself , I always wished I had a sibling I could wholeheartedly trust and rely on the same way Sally and Gilly rely on each other.  I just cannot help but love how each sister’s courage reflects back onto the other. To me, the Owens sisters are the best and ideal portrait of sisterhood in cinema. To not spoil more of the movie, I will jump into a small analysis of the characters and afterward, the womanhood represented in the movie. Gillian Owens “You ever put your arms out and spin really, really fast? Well, that’s what love is like. It makes your heart race. It turns the world upside down.”—Gillian Owens Before we get into it, can I just say that every time I see her, I wish I had her hair and her house? While her sister is extremely gifted in witchcraft, Gilly’s gifted area is in her charm and persuasion. She leaves town to travel the world and find love. She is a very complex character—free-spirited, passionate, extremely impulsive, confident—but her best quality is how she’s extremely secure in who she is. Gillian Owens never follows or listens to the crowd. Never trying to blend in, she always thrives in her true self, accepting herself exactly as she is. Sally Owens “Sometimes I feel like there’s a hole inside of me, an emptiness that at times seems to burn. I think if you lifted my heart to your ear, you could probably hear the ocean. The moon tonight, there’s a circle around it. Sign of trouble not far behind. I have this dream of being whole. Of not going to sleep each night, wanting. But still sometimes, when the wind is warm or the crickets sing… I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for. I just want someone to love me. I want to be seen. I don’t know. Maybe I had my happiness. I don’t want to believe it but, there is no man, Gilly. Only that moon.”—Sally Owens Sally has always wanted to be normal. She tried to shrink herself as much as she could to fit in with the crowd, but no matter what she did, she was always treated differently—just like in her entire childhood, where people used to avoid or bully her and Gillian.  The only way Sally could get to normality is by embracing who she actually was, like her sister. Even if the circumstances were life and death, she still succeeded. She is the more grounded, smarter, sarcastic, responsible sister. Sally is a deep feeler; she’s the kind of person who sees the beauty in everything.  She and Gillian are both the kind of persons who would sacrifice themselves for their loved ones in a heartbeat. She’s always there for Gillian, helping her whenever she needs it, as they have such a strong connection that they know when the other one is in danger without even speaking, shown repeatedly throughout the film. Her self-accepting story is one of the most important storylines. Embracing one’s self Most women all over the world have tried to shrink themselves to fit in at least once. We all were judged for being ‘too much’ or ‘not enough’. Sally’s journey mirrors the universal struggle of finding your identity in a world that wants you to fit in. And Gilly’s journey shows us how embracing and ignoring meaningless voices that want to put us down transforms the world around us into the world we want to live in. By finally embracing herself and not caring about what society sees as ‘best fit,’ Sally manages to achieve the life she always wanted—but only better, of course. We can notice that accepting herself made others accept her too. That being said, the movie also shows how women’s support can change a lifestyle. Filmcraft This movie’s visuals are my most favorite ever. The use of color makes the Practical Magic world feel alive and makes you wish you lived in it. The editing of the movie is really engaging, as the pace is perfect, not making any of the scenes feel rushed or dragged on for too long. Scenes like the iconic ‘midnight margaritas’ show the intimacy and familiarity of the characters,which helps you feel the connection between them. The soundtrack matches the movie’s vibe completely and its just so dreamy and perfect and the costume designs really help in show casting the characters personalities. * * ‼️spoiler alert‼️ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After Gillian is possessed by her abusive ex-boyfriend, they need a coven of 12 women to help free her. Sally, who hasn’t had that many friends since she was considered an outcast, begins to call all the women she can think of to help her sister, and she admits all the lifelong rumors even though everyone already knew they were true. The womanhood and how the film empowers women The spectrum of womanhood is shown throughout the film in the power of choices and decisions that every character makes.  Each character owns her choices and strengths. No matter how much we hate each other, when another woman needs serious help, we girls help each other out. We become united. As the other women in town learn that Gillian needs help to free herself from an abusive ex, it doesn’t take long until the house is filled with women who came to help—even the woman who hated Sally comes to the rescue.  Sometimes, all you need to find common ground and bond is an evil ex; God knows all of us had at least one. When you learn about a woman’s suffering—for example, how she is trying to free herself from an abusive man—you empathize even if you’ve never been in that situation. You do all you can to help.  To me, that’s the most beautiful perk of womanhood—helping each other get past what we need to leave behind, and how most of it stands in the small moments: sharing a recipe with a neighbor in need, showing empathy and offering comfort to a friend. With the help from the women and a slight change of plans as Sally gets a better idea, Gillian is freed of her ex’s spirit. And then all the women get their brooms and swoosh that son of a bitch out of the house. After this life-changing experience, Gillian, Sally, and the aunts are no longer outcasts. Not only did Sally accept herself, so did the rest of the town. And now she even had her soulmate with her—the man she manifested years ago as a kid.