Practical Magic

Practical Magic is a 1998 romantic comedy film based on Alice Hoffman's 1995 novel of the same name, directed by Griffin Dunne, starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Aidan Quinn and Goran Visnjic.

Plot
The film is about sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) Owens who struggle with their hereditary gift of practical magic which curses the men they fall in love with to death & together, they work to fight the curse that threatens the lives of all of the women in their family.

Cast

 * Sandra Bullock as Sally Owens
 * Nicole Kidman as Gillian Owens
 * Goran Visnjic as James "Jimmy" Angelov
 * Stockard Channing as Aunt Frances Owens
 * Dianne Wiest as Aunt Bridget "Jet" Owens
 * Aidan Quinn as Investigator Gary Hallet
 * Caprice Benedetti as Maria Owens
 * Evan Rachel Wood as Kylie Owens
 * Alexandra Artrip as Antonia Owens
 * Mark Feuerstein as Michael
 * Lora Ann Criswell as Young Gillian Owens
 * Camilla Belle as Young Sally Owens
 * Peter Shaw as Jack
 * Caralyn Kozlowski as Regina
 * Chloe Webb as Carla
 * Lucinda Jenney as Sara
 * Margo Martindale as Linda Bennett
 * Martha Gehman as Patty

Production
The movie was partially filmed on an artificial set in California. The filming dates took place from February 2nd to May 9, 1998.

The film's producers said the house was a big part of the depiction of the Owens' culture, so they knew they had to build a house to accurately depict this. They built it on Coupeville, Washington.

They brought much of the set from California and placed it inside the house, but it still took almost a year to perfect the image of the house and the interior.

The house used is owned by the Sundstrom Family and is located on San Juan Valley Road, San Juan Island. They built a replica of the outside of the house on the west side of San Juan Island so that it looked like the house was on the waterfront, but in actuality it is in the valley.

They built the house in San Juan County Park, but since the house was built only for this filming, it was torn down after the movie was released.

Many of the small town scenes were filmed in downtown Coupeville Washington located on Whidbey Island.

According to Sandra Bullock in the DVD commentary, in the scene where the Owens women are drunk and slinging insults, the actresses actually got drunk on very bad tequila brought by Kidman.

The cast also thinks that the supernatural elements of the house started to affect them; the cast and crew say that they have heard ghost noises while filming the coven scene at the end of the film.

For the final scene with all of the townspeople at the Owens' home, the entire population of the town where filming took place was invited to show up in costume and appear as townsfolk.

Box Office
"Practical Magic" opened at #1 at the box office, grossing $13,104,694 during its opening weekend.

It went on to gross $68.3 million worldwide which was less than its $75 million production budget.

Critical Reception
"Practical Magic" received negative reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 20% approval rating, based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10 and the site's consensus states: "Comedy, romance and humor mix with unsatisfying results".

Metacritic calculated an average rating score of 55 based on 22 reviews.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a negative review, calling it "a witch comedy so slapdash, plodding, and muddled it seems to have had a hex put on it".

Roger Ebert said that the film "doesn't seem sure what tone to adopt, veering uncertainly from horror to laughs to romance."

Accolades
1999 American Comedy Awards
 * Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Dianne Wiest (nominated)

1999 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
 * Favorite Supporting Actress- Comedy\Romance: Stockard Channing (won)
 * Favorite Actor- Comedy\Romance: Aidan Quinn (nominated)
 * Favorite Supporting Actress- Comedy\Romance: Dianne Wiest (nominated)
 * Favorite Song From a Movie (for Faith Hill's song "This Kiss") (nominated)

Young Artist Awards 1999
 * Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress: Camilla Belle (nominated)
 * Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress: Evan Rachel Wood (nominated)