Trailer
Plot summary
Sisters Sally and Gillian Owens have a special bond with each other despite being different in personality and outlook. Having grown up with their spinster Aunts Frances and Jet in the long time Owens family home on an island off the coast of Massachusetts following the death of their father and then their mother, they are the latest in a long line of witches. Rumors of the Owens women being witches have existed for generations in the small close minded town in which they live, despite there being no hard evidence. The Owens women are also under a curse that any man with who they fall in love is doomed. With this experience, extroverted Gilly decides to leave the island to live life to the fullest, in the process falling for Jimmy Angelov, an ethnic Bulgarian who grew up near Transylvannia. More introspective Sally, who has sworn off the use of magic except in its most practical sense, has taken measures not to fall in love because of the curse, but ends up falling for and marrying Michael, a local merchant, the two who end up having two daughters of their own. The curse works its way into both Gilly and Sally's lives in different ways. The outcomes of the curse on their collective lives become more complicated with the arrival into town of Tuscon police detective Gary Hallet, whose arrival is not by accident and involves more than just his stated professional purpose.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Practical Magic (1998)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Because the filmmakers wanted the Owens house to feel central to the story, they built a full-scale replica house on San Juan Island in Washington that took nearly a year to perfect inside and out, even though it was only an empty shell with nothing inside; it was demolished once filming wrapped.
- According to Sandra Bullock's DVD commentary, while filming the scene where the Owens sisters and aunts get drunk and hurl insults at each other, the actresses actually got drunk on genuinely bad tequila that Nicole Kidman had brought to set.
- Composer Michael Nyman's score was abruptly replaced with music by Alan Silvestri for the theatrical release; the last-minute change resulted in two soundtracks, although as primarily a compilation album only the two tracks of newly created material were changed.
- Production designers Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch hand-made the film's props, including a spellbook with original illustrations Alesch drew himself; Standefer said they built "every little thing in the film, down to the tincture jars and pressed flowers."
- The soundtrack's lead single, "If You Ever Did Believe", was the first time Stevie Nicks released her own recording of a song she had written in the 1970s and had previously allowed Louise Goffin to record for her 1981 album.
SPOILER
Director Griffin Dunne said his original vision for the film was much darker: the scene of Sally and Gillian inserting needles into Jimmy was meant to be far more disturbing, and the domestic-violence storyline more intense, before the studio cut that material down.
