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Durée	100 minutes
Année de sortie	16 octobre 1998
Genre	Comedy
Pays	- United States
Budget	60 000 000,00 $US
Avis	Rotten Tomatoes (22%) Rotten Tomatoes (4.6/10)
Réalisation	Griffin Dunne
Scénario	Robin Swicord, Adam Brooks

Présentation

Practical Magic is a 1998 American fantasy romantic drama film based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman. The film was directed by Griffin Dunne and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Aidan Quinn, and Goran Višnjić.

Bullock and Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, descended from a long line of witches. Raised by their aunts after their parents' death from a family curse, the sisters were taught the uses of practical magic as they grew up. As adults, Sally and Gillian must use their magic to destroy an evil spirit before it kills them.

The film is considered a cult classic.

Bande-annonce

Synopsis

In a small Massachusetts town, the Owens family have been regarded with suspicion for over three centuries due to their ancestor Maria Owens, who survived an attempted execution for witchcraft. Heartbroken when the father of her unborn child never returned to her, Maria cast a spell to prevent herself from ever falling in love again. The spell developed into a curse upon Maria's descendants, dooming any man an Owens woman loves.

In the present, Gillian and Sally Owens are taken in by their aunts Frances and Jet after both their parents succumb to the Owens curse. As children, Sally and Gillian are frequently ridiculed by the town's schoolchildren. After witnessing their aunts cast a love spell for a woman obsessed with her beloved, Sally casts a spell on herself to ensure she will only fall in love with a man who possesses certain impossible traits, with the goal that she will never fall in love. Meanwhile Gillian, witnessing the same incident, cannot wait to fall in love. When the girls are teens, Gillian elopes with her boyfriend and leaves for Los Angeles. Before Gillian departs, she and Sally make a blood spell to always be faithful to one another.

Gillian spends the next decade moving from relationship to relationship across the country, while back in Massachusetts, Sally meets and marries a man named Michael. The two have two young daughters, Kylie and Antonia. After Michael is fatally hit by a truck, Sally and her daughters return to live with the aunts. After the aunts reveal that they secretly cast a love spell on her so that she could marry and be happy, Sally forbids them from teaching her daughters magic.

Sally sinks into depression after Michael’s death. Sensing her pain, Gillian astrally projects to Sally and they spend the night reconnecting. Gillian has become involved with a dangerously obsessive man named Jimmy Angelov, whom she drugs with belladonna so she can sleep. Invigorated by Gillian’s visit, Sally finds strength and opens the botanical shop she had planned to with Michael.

Gillian calls home in distress and Sally takes off to rescue her. Upon finding her sister, Jimmy holds them both hostage in his car. At Gillian’s insistence, Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila to sedate him but the dosage inadvertently kills him instead. Realising that the belladonna in Jimmy’s blood would ruin a self-defence plea, the sisters take his body back to the aunts' house. They resurrect him with a forbidden spell, which causes him to return and attack Gillian. Sally kills him again, and the sisters bury his remains in the garden. The aunts are overjoyed at Gillian’s return, but their late night revelries are soured by a malevolent presence they can all sense. When Sally and Gillian deny it, the aunts leave them to clean up their own mess.

The next morning, state investigator Gary Hallett arrives from Tucson, Arizona in search of Jimmy, who is also a serial killer. Sally feels drawn to him, with her daughters surmising that he is the impossible man from the childhood love spell. Sally breaks down and confesses to Gary, taking the full blame for Jimmy’s death. Unable to deny their attraction, they kiss but Sally flees when she realises Gary is the man she conjured.

Returning home, Sally discovers Jimmy's spirit has possessed Gillian's body. Gary sees Jimmy's spirit emerge. Jimmy tries possessing Gary, but is turned aside by his silver badge. Sally tells Gary he is there because of her spell, the feelings they have for each other are not real, and the family curse will kill him if they pursue a relationship. Gary replies that curses only work if one believes in them, before returning to Tucson.

Jimmy possesses Gillian again and tries killing Sally before Frances and Jet return. Realizing she must embrace magic to save her sister, Sally asks the aid of the townswomen and they form a coven to exorcise Jimmy's spirit. Their first attempt hurts Gillian and Sally makes them stop. In a moment of inspiration, Sally re-enacts her blood pact with Gillian. Jimmy’s spirit is expelled from Gillian and the family curse is finally broken. Jimmy is sealed into the grave.

In Tucson, Gary clears the sisters of any suspicion in Jimmy's case and returns to Massachusetts to be with Sally. By Halloween, the townsfolk have finally embraced the Owens women and gather to watch the witches fly off the roof. The film ends with Sally and Gary sharing a kiss.

Distribution

Numéros d'identification

• IMDb ID (tt0120791)
• Rotten Tomatoes ID (m/practical_magic)
• Letterboxd film ID (practical-magic)

Sources

• en.wikipedia.org - CC-BY-SA 3.0

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