28 Years Later, Practical Magic’s Best Line Still Defines the Fantasy Genre

In the heyday of Sandra Bullock’s romantic comedy career, Practical Magic was a subversive paranormal fantasy. Based on Alice Hoffman’s beloved novel, the 1998 movie was a perfect blend of the supernatural and the romantic, in a story about two witchy sisters who encounter love, loss, and a family curse. Practical Magic can be summed up in a perfect fantastical line that defines the genre and also the central themes of the movie.

Gillian Owens, portrayed by Nicole Kidman, explains to her nieces the prospect of love in one significant scene. “You ever put your arms out and spin, really, really fast?” she asks. “That’s what love is like.” She explains that it is easy to lose balance when in love. “You can’t see what’s happening to the people around you. You can’t see that you’re about to fall.”

Practical Magic Shows the Dangers of Love

practical-magic-sandra-bullock-candle — Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) playing with a flame in Practical Magic

Practical Magic’s best line defines what the fantasy series is at its core. While the late 90s were the prime time for romances, the supernatural story didn’t view the concept with rose-colored glasses. It showed the pursuit of love in an unfettered light, including the good and the bad.

While a romance fantasy at its heart, it doesn’t shy away from the dark realities of love. Her sister Sally has seen the good parts of romance and encountered loss, but Gillian is the dark side of the coin. Her free spirit led her into the arms of the volatile but seductive Jimmy Angelov.

Initially, Gillian mistakes his possessiveness as merely an unattractive trait before learning truly how destructive he can be. More than just an alcoholic, Jimmy is a killer of women, which Gillian discovers when she reaches out to her sister for help. Practical Magic takes a dark turn that many romances don’t when Gillian and Sally are driven to murder.

Though accidental, Sally drugs Jimmy to the point of death. To avoid jail time, they decide to dabble in necromancy because, at least if he’s alive, they can’t be guilty of murder. Gillian believes that since Jimmy was so evil, no one will notice if he comes back wrong.

This turns out to be a massive miscalculation when Jimmy’s resurrection turns into a catastrophe. The abuser returns as a malevolent spirit who, in turn, possesses Gillian’s body. Through this storyline, Practical Magic tackles how love can go so wrong even with the best of intentions. Gillian understands how dangerous the power of love is in the wrong hands.

While it seems that there is no downside to having experienced the emotion, this isn’t the case. Romances often portray the honeymoon periods of relationships, but that isn’t everyone’s experience. As Gillian warns, love can be a weapon, and sometimes it affects other family members and loved ones.

Practical Magic Is Both Romantic and Tells Harsh Truths

Like in any good fantasy tale, magic comes at a cost. Practical Magic doesn’t mince words about this in the opening sequence that details the plight of the Owens family. Their line of witches started with Maria Owens, who was hanged for witchcraft after having an affair with a married man.

She survived but was abandoned by her lover to give birth to her baby in solitude. Maria cast a spell so she would never love again, but the spell turned into a curse that spurned all her descendants. Any time an Owens woman fell in love, that person was doomed to die.

When Sally and Gillian’s mother heard the sound of the deathwatch beetle, she knew her husband was not long for this world. The same happened to Sally, even though she knew that falling in love was a death sentence for her husband. In some ways, Practical Magic also functions as a coming-of-age story, as it conveys all the grief and pain that can come with falling in love.

The movie is allowed to be silly in other respects because it makes this one fact abundantly clear. Practical Magic’s definitive line represents the highs and lows of love, which so resembles witchcraft itself.

Practical Magic 2 Has a Lot To Live Up To

Practical Magic was a perfect romance time capsule of the late ‘90s, but, of course, the Hollywood machine has to keep on churning. The legacy sequel premiering in 2026 is in danger of being a blatant cash grab when the first movie was just about as perfect a witch movie as one could get.

The natural conclusion to the movie involves Sally finding love again despite the dark cloud of her ancestry hanging over her head. Her daughters are open to the possibility of witchcraft, and there is no shame in being who they are. Footage from Practical Magic 2 retcon that idea.

Sally’s daughters appear to have no knowledge about their witchy heritage and only find out when the curse rears its ugly head again. The sequel may contextualize this, but it will have to do a lot of legwork to not invalidate the nostalgic affection that fans have cultivated for the brand over the years. The trailer also hints that Sally’s second husband from the first movie has died, which puts a real damper on the end of the original narrative.

This was supposed to be Sally’s true love since she cast a spell to find him when she was a child. Because he was the product of a spell himself, it was possible he could have avoided the grisly fate that most men in the franchise are doomed to experience. That appears to not be the case in the new adventure. Fans may have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to get on board with a sequel, but there is hope.

As long as Practical Magic 2 stays tonally consistent with the original and doesn’t deviate continuity-wise in any way, there is no way that it can fail. Legacy sequels based only on nostalgia historically always work out, right? If nothing else, fans can at least look forward to the chemistry between Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock when the upcoming movie premieres in September.