Video Pick: Practical Magic
by Lovell Mahan-Moutaw

Witchcraft, Magick, The Craft, Wicca -- these words make us think of the supernatural, power, mystery, magic, spells, charms, curses and evil. They also make us think of something else...women.

History hasn't been good to witches. Many were hanged, burned at the stake, drowned on the pole, stoned, stretched, crushed, reviled, defiled, banished and scorned. Mainly because witches were (are) feared and were (are, mostly) women. And women with power - stop right there.

Centuries ago, midwives in Europe were accused of witchcraft because pregnant women preferred midwives to physicians and the physicians, mainly men, didn't like that preference. One pointed finger and a "WITCH!" and BOOM!, someone's dead. I don't need to go over what happened in Salem or what the words "witch hunt" mean to us today or how horrified I am that it was mainly women pointing the fingers at other women.

We must also consider the many practicing witches who were burned, hanged, drowned, stoned, stretched, crushed, reviled, defiled, banished and scorned because people didn't understand the science/religion of Wicca. There aren't a lot of mainstream religions in the last couple of centuries that have been understanding of a worship outside of their belief, even benign (more than benign, actually rather beautiful) ones.

What is the deal with this Magick? This Craft? Is it real? Are there good witches and bad witches? Is there some type of power that they wield? Are witches running around casting spells, chanting hexes and causing mayhem? Or is this really just a belief in something mystical, powerful and wonderful...the worship of the Goddess, the Mother Earth, and the half man/half beast God that is her consort?

Or is the deal that we just fear the power of women?

***

The Owens women have occupied the little island off of Massachusetts since the first of them was accused of witchcraft centuries before and was banished there after using her magic and narrowly escaping her own hanging. She waited on the island for her lover and the father of her unborn child but soon realized he would not join her there. She cast a spell on herself to never fall in love again and through the agony of lost love, repeated the spell so often it became a curse that affected all the Owens women that came after her.

Therefore, when Sally and Gillian's mother fell in love, as an Owens woman, it couldn't last. Her husband was cursed and after his death their mother died of a "broken heart". Sally and Gillian were sent to live with their aunts on the island where their ancestor Maria and all of the other Owens women practiced their Craft.

Since Maria, people that populated the island scorned the Owens women, blaming them for everything that went wrong. The Aunts lived in their weird and beautiful old house, practiced their spells and charms and didn't do much to dissuade their neighbors from their fear.

Poor Sally and Gillian were caught up in this and were teased and taunted, reviled and scorned by schoolchildren and parents alike. Because of this, Sally grew up wanting to be "normal" while Gillian grew up wanting to be anywhere but there.

Regardless of the fear with which the townspeople regarded the Owens women, it didn't stop some townswomen from coming to the Aunts in the middle of the night. In exchange for money, these women would beg for spells to place over the men they loved. "Be careful what you wish for..." the Aunts said as they tut tutted over these women who were doing everything but tearing at their hair and skin because of the pain their love caused them. Sally and Gillian would watch the Aunts weave their charms. Sally would wish that love would never find her -- she would even cast a spell over herself for a man that didn't exist so that she could save herself from the pain she witnessed in these women but also so she wouldn't face the curse of the Owens women. Gillian couldn't wait to fall in love.

***

This movie was marketed as a romance. At least it seemed that way to me. Sally (Sandra Bullock) is scared to fall in love because of a curse. Gilly (Nicole Kidman), is her red-headed, free-spirited sister who runs around showing her navel a lot and wearing cool sunglasses. And then there are loads of shots of Aidan Quinn, who is cute, but isn't in the movie all that much.

This happened with Bullock's Hope Floats - it was marketed as a kind of fun romance. I am beginning to admire Sandra Bullock for her difficult choices. Hope Floats was a story about a woman - not a great woman, just a pretty woman - and how life is shitty for everyone and how you can actually wade through the shit and find something pretty fantastic. And that something pretty fantastic doesn't always have to be a man. That something fantastic you find can just be you.

Don't get me wrong...Hope Floats and Practical Magic are partially about men (mainly how we allow them to fuck up our lives), but it is much more than that. Especially Practical Magic.

***

Sally and Gilly grow up. Sally stays in town and worries about being normal and not having the townsfolk cross the street when they see her coming down the sidewalk. Gilly takes off to experience life.

Bad news, Sally falls in love, she has two kids, she has a normal life and then the curse hits her.

More bad news, Gilly gets involved with a psychopath and all hell breaks loose.

***

I'd like to take this moment to talk about the Aunts played by Stockard Channing and Dianne Weist. I love Stockard Channing and Dianne Weist. They have expressive faces with remarkably expressive eyes. From the looks they would give the girls and each other, we knew what "died from a broken heart" meant. We knew what, "Be careful what you wish for..." meant. We were treated to the de-cliche-ing of tired cliches. God bless them both for being so damn talented.

***

Women can be awful to each other. Back-biting, gossip-mongering, jealous, covetous and cruel - women do these things better than anyone else. When one woman knows another and either or both are involved in any of the above - it is vicious, painful and unforgettable.

But a relationship of a woman with a woman without any of these things can be so fulfilling it is almost impossible to believe. The love and understanding between two women is beyond words. Make those women sisters and it is almost supernatural.

***

Witchcraft as a metaphor for women isn't rocket science, but it works in Practical Magic. The power of magic(k), the mystery of it, the connotation of evil, the reality of good, the fear we have of it, the secret need to embrace it -- and all of this backed by little understanding and even less respect.

Sally wants to be normal, she hides her talent and hates being different. But oh how she blossoms when she accepts herself.

Gilly wants to escape, she craves experience, but actually wants less to experience life and more to lose herself in life. And experience without reason can lead to disaster. You should let go but you must never get lost.

As silly as it sounds, love will show the way.

***

This is the love story, between Sally and Gillian. These are two sisters who know each other, have experienced pain and joy and grief and love. These are two sisters who communicate with each other through thoughts and feelings, who can cure an ailment in the other through listening, talking, sharing, and just plain being together. These are two sisters who share the blood bond of birth, the bond of the Craft, the bond of centuries of ancestors who were reviled and scorned as they are, who share the "weakness" of their sex and who share the bond of being sisters. These are two sisters who love each other and share a power as two totally different people, as witches, as sisters but especially women.

These sisters -- sisters -- sisterhood -- witches -- women.

To bash you over the head with it, Sally and Gilly are all women, all sisters. We, the sisterhood, we share the power as women. We all share the talent of the Craft (if we wish to embrace it), the strength of womanhood -- and we should be proud of it and to show it and to let it go, be known, be respected and adored.

Yes, and worshiped.

***

This is the story of women and their strength and courage and their power. In the end it is about the power of women and how, if we stick together and hold our circle, we can sweep away evil.

***

I loved this movie.

***

Lovell Mahan-Moutaw Cinema-l 1998

One last note - I dedicate this review to my sister Erika. I wouldn't have a problem living in a weird old house with loads of cats and two gorgeous girls (one, named Jilly, who would crave the normal, one, named Karrie, who would crave the experience). I would be happy living with Erika and weaving spells and drinking midnight margaritas and tending gardens and dancing naked in the moonlight. I would be happy sharing every moment with my sister. More than happy - beyond happy - I would be empowered and beloved and content and confident and understood. Yes, beyond happy.