Watched: Practical Magic

This movie is definitely one of those comforting, endlessly rewatchable classics for me. It's not exactly a masterpiece but I do think its atmosphere and cinematography are underrated. I noticed a lot more production/continuity errors this time around that I ever have before but I still love it. The book its based on (of the same name) by Alice Hoffman is also a great, romantic but not trashy read.

Young Evan Rachel Wood, hello!

Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing, so perfect!

Two motifs we see again and again: the sisters looking at themselves through distorted or reflective surfaces. Depending at where they are in the story, in the two shots above they have killed Gillie's abusive boyfriend and are attempting to cover it up so their images are distorted. In earlier shots where they are still innocent they look into basic mirrors, sometimes mirrors reflecting mirrors, and simple see themselves as they are. I think it's meat to visually suggest a theme from the book, that the world around them is extremely responsive to what the Owens women are feeling so they have a heightened awareness of themselves. Or it looks cool.

One of those.

Another recurring shot, the directly overheard angle, looking down at the action. Besides presenting a lot of storytelling information quickly (here we are able to see the police officer looking for Goran Visjnic's dead boyfriend character is nosing through Sally's green room because of the many rumors he's heard, Sally is watching him curiously but fearfully, her floor is littered with something (flower petals?) perhaps as a result of the current chaos in her life). In this one shot we see happen what might need two or three cuts if told at the same level as the characters. I also have to wonder if the movie is trying to present an omniscient perspective like that of the book's narrator. It's been a long time since I read it but I'm pretty sure it's told in the third person and we do jump around a bit, with a narrator offering us insight and perspective frequently as to the context of events.

The movie kind of fudges up the thing where he's supposed to have one blue eye and one green. Once they bring it up he suddenly has it but it's not very bright or easy to see, and in scenes before it's mentioned it's obvious both his eyes are blue. But Aiden Quinn is perfect in this role anyway.

Margo Martindale is ALWAYS great. Even when she's totally underused as she is here. But at least she's not playing "the fat lady" or something else insulting. She's just one of Sally's employees the nicer women in town who help with the seance at the end. Best Margo Martindale roles: Paris je t'aime (heartbreaking), August: Osage County (despite that movie being completely extra), and her role on the tv show Justified being just about the best thing I've ever seen her done (and maybe one of the best things I've ever seen on that show, although I stopped watching it a while ago).

Again with the overhead! (Not knocking it in fact I really like it. There were others I didn't catch but yeah it's used frequently.)

Good LORD was Nicole Kidman pretty in this role.

Perfect.