PRACTICAL MAGIC 2 — A LITTLE NOSTALGIA, A LITTLE SISTERHOOD & JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF MAGIC ✨🔮

There are some films that don’t just live in your memory — they become part of your world. Practical Magic is absolutely one of those films for me.

So, naturally, when Practical Magic 2 arrived, I went in with a mixture of excitement, nostalgia and that tiny bit of fear you always have when someone decides to revisit something you love. Because let’s face it, sequels made decades later can be… dangerous territory.

MAKING AN OCCASION OF IT

And because this wasn’t just any old trip to the cinema, we decided to make a proper occasion of it and headed to the Everyman Cinema in Barnet.

If you’re going to revisit the Owens women after all these years, I feel like a slightly luxe cinema experience is really the only appropriate way to do it. Big comfy seats, drinks brought to you and that wonderful feeling that going to the cinema is an actual event again rather than simply turning up, inhaling some popcorn and going home.

Naturally, drinks were required to toast the occasion, so we settled in with gin and tonics before the film.

Now, I KNOW a margarita would technically have been the correct Practical Magic choice — midnight margaritas and all that — but I simply couldn’t face one. 😂

So G&Ts it was.

Perhaps slightly less authentic to the Owens family tradition, but considerably kinder to me.

And honestly, there’s something I really love about making cinema feel special again. Dressing up a little, having a drink, settling into a gorgeous cinema and properly giving yourself over to a film for a couple of hours. Especially when it’s something you’ve waited this long to see.

SO… DOES THE MAGIC STILL WORK?

I’m very happy to report: the magic is still there.

Is it the first Practical Magic? No. Is it as dark, strange or deliciously gothic as the original? Not quite. But I actually think that’s okay.

Times have changed, cinema has changed, and perhaps we have too. Trying to recreate the original film exactly would probably have felt forced. Instead, this feels like returning to a familiar place many years later — everything has shifted slightly, but you still recognise the feeling of home.

And at its heart, it’s incredibly sweet.

There’s still magic, of course, but underneath all of that is a story about women, family, sisterhood, ageing, love and the strength that comes from knowing exactly who you are. It feels empowering without constantly having to announce that it’s empowering — which I loved.

And then there are The Aunts.

Honestly, my heart. ❤️

They are every bit as warm, eccentric and wonderful as you want them to be. Seeing them again feels like being reunited with relatives you haven’t seen for years but somehow haven’t changed a bit. They bring so much of that original Practical Magic warmth back with them.

And Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman? Still completely believable as Sally and Gillian.

Their chemistry is effortless. You immediately believe that these two women have lived an entire lifetime together since we last saw them. There’s history, affection, frustration and that unmistakable sisterly shorthand between them. You don’t need it explained — it’s just there.

What I think the film gets particularly right is the nostalgia. There’s enough of it to make those of us who adore the original feel completely fed, but it doesn’t spend the entire film desperately nudging you and saying, “Remember this? Remember THIS?”

Instead, it takes the world we already love and moves it forward.

It’s warmer and perhaps a little softer than the original, with a more modern sensibility, but underneath it all is the same message that made Practical Magic so special in the first place: there is enormous power in women supporting women, in family — chosen or otherwise — and in embracing the things that make you different.

And perhaps my favourite little review came without anybody actually saying a word.

As the film ended, everyone in the cinema clapped.

Actual applause.

And in an age when we watch so much alone, at home, on our phones and on streaming platforms, there was something genuinely lovely about sitting in a room full of people who had clearly loved returning to this world as much as I had.

Sweet, empowering, nostalgic and just the right amount of magic.

It might not cast exactly the same spell as the original — but then perhaps it doesn’t need to.

Some magic changes with time. ✨

Stay in the Spot.

Px