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There was always something a little frustrating about 1998’s Practical Magic. The ingredients were all there: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, witchcraft, romance, murder, Stevie Nicks, and one hell of a house. Yet somehow the movie never quite figured out what potion it wanted to brew. Nearly three decades later, Practical Magic 2 arrives with the considerable burden of nostalgia hanging over it and does something rather unexpected: it improves upon the original.

Yes, I said it. Practical Magic 2 is better.

Bullock and Kidman slip back into Sally and Gillian Owens with an ease that makes the intervening years disappear almost immediately. More importantly, though, their age works in the movie’s favor. These are no longer young women running from family history, bad relationships, and the consequences of their own decisions. They’ve lived with all of it. The sequel understands that growing older doesn’t mean the magic disappears; it means you finally begin to understand what it costs. There’s a warmth between Bullock and Kidman that feels less manufactured this time around, and the movie is at its strongest whenever it simply allows the Owens women to occupy the same space, argue, laugh, remember, and occasionally make an enormous supernatural mess of things.

The biggest disappointment is how little the movie does with Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing. Aunt Bridget and Aunt Frances were essential to the personality of the original, and having both actresses back should have been cause for celebration. Instead, they occasionally feel like beloved decorations brought down from the attic because somebody remembered audiences would expect to see them. Wiest especially deserves more. Every time the two appear, the movie wakes up in a slightly different way, which only makes their limited involvement more frustrating. If you’re going to bring the aunts back, let the damn aunts loose.

Fortunately, Practical Magic 2 gets most everything else right. The returning cast isn’t treated merely as an excuse for applause breaks and callbacks. There’s nostalgia here, certainly, but the movie doesn’t drown in it. The Owens family history remains important because these characters are still wrestling with it, not because the screenplay wants us pointing at the screen every five minutes. The supernatural elements also feel more confidently woven into the story this time, allowing the movie to embrace its witchier side without sacrificing the relationships that have always been the heart of this world.

And that might be the sequel’s greatest trick. The original Practical Magic became beloved despite being a strangely uneven mixture of romantic comedy, domestic drama, supernatural thriller, and late-'90s studio quirkiness. This one seems to understand that the mixture itself was never the problem. The proportions were. Practical Magic 2 finds a better balance between humor, darkness, romance, sisterhood, and magic, while allowing Sally and Gillian to become something more interesting than nostalgic versions of their younger selves.

Is it perfect? Not remotely. Wiest and Channing are criminally underused, a few story beats arrive exactly where you expect them to, and there are moments when the movie leans a little too hard on our affection for the first film. But there’s genuine affection behind this sequel, too. It doesn’t feel like somebody dusted off a recognizable title simply because the studio needed another legacy property. There’s a reason to revisit these women, and Bullock and Kidman give us a reason to care about who they have become.

Against considerable odds, Practical Magic 2 doesn’t merely recapture the spell. It finally gets the recipe right.

MPAA Rating: PG-13.
Runtime: 130 mins
Director: Susanne Bier
Writer: Alice Hoffman; Akiva Goldsman
Cast: Sandra Bullock; Dianne Wiest; Stockard Channing
Genre: Comedy | Romance
Tagline: Everything You've Witched For
Memorable Movie Quote: 
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Official Site:https://www.practicalmagicmovie.com/
Release Date: September 11, 2026
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: A multi generational family of witches, cursed to be loveless for centuries, attempts to break the spell by confronting dark secrets and sacrificing for each other.