Summary
The movie adaptation of Practical Magic is lighter and more comedic than the book, condensing the story for a tighter adaptation.
The aunts play a much larger role in the movie, providing comedic relief and being pivotal characters rather than superfluous elements.
Sally’s daughters are older and more complex in the book, exploring their development and individual stories in greater depth than the movie.
The Practical Magic movie has become a cult classic, but some viewers might not know that it’s based on a book and made significant changes to the overall story. Alice Hoffman wrote Practical Magic, which was published in 1995, and the film adaptation came out just three years later, in 1998. Starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gillian, the twin sisters who serve as the protagonists of both versions, the movie didn’t receive critical acclaim when it came out but has grown in the estimation of many people over time.
What the next movie will be about is up for debate, but it will likely be closer in tone to the movie rather than the book, which took a darker and more mysterious tone overall.
Due to the increase in popularity of the film in recent years, Kidman and Bullock will return for Practical Magic 2. While waiting for the next installment of their story, looking back on the original text might give insight into what’s to come. However, some of the most memorable scenes in Practical Magic weren’t in the book and were invented for the screen. What the next movie will be about is up for debate, but it will likely be closer in tone to the movie rather than the book, which took a darker and more mysterious tone overall.
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7 The Relationship Between The Sisters Is Strained In The Book
Sally and Gillian are closer in the movie.
The closeness between Sally and Gillian is an essential element in the movie, but it’s not something that’s cemented in the novel until the end. In the movie, Gillian is there for Sally after her husband dies, and the two make a pact before Gillian runs away that they’ll always be there for each other. Conversely, the pair are essentially estranged for almost twenty years, and Gillian only turns to Sally when she’s in trouble. A dramatic thrust in the book’s story is the repair of their relationship and the re-establishment of lost trust.
Their closeness is built slowly over time as Sally puts her family at risk for Gillian, and Gillian attempts to right her wrongs.
Though they get into a few petty fights and arguments in the movie, it’s nothing compared to the anger and resentment they harbor in the book. Their closeness is built slowly over time as Sally puts her family at risk for Gillian, and Gillian attempts to right her wrongs. The chemistry between Bullock and Kidman in the film would have made it difficult to believe that the women didn’t have a deep love for each other. While Sally and Gillian hold love in their hearts in the book, it takes them some time to say it out loud.
6 The Aunts Play A Much Larger Role In The Movie Adaptation
After Sally and Gillian’s childhood, they’re hardly seen in the book.
Played by Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest, the aunts Frances and Jet provide comedic relief and are a standout of the movie. It would have been a shame if the actresses’ talents were wasted by making their roles as small as they are in the book. It’s only at the beginning when Gillian and Sally live with them, and the end, when the sisters call on the aunts for help, that they impact the story’s direction. While the aunts do take their leave for a time to make Sally and Gillian clean up their mess, they’re much more prominent.
The aunts were such a big part of the Practical Magic movie that Practical Magic 2 needs Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest almost more than Kidmand and Bullock. It’s thanks to the casting choice of Channing and Wiest that the aunts are elevated to the point of being fun and pivotal characters instead of superfluous elements. Though the book needs the aunts for the story to progress, it uses them more as a tool and spends no time developing their characters, even in moments of comedy and lightheartedness.
5 The Movie Is Lighter And More Comedic Than The Book
The book is a somewhat darker coming-of-age story.
Part of the reason Practical Magic became so enduring among audiences is because of the aesthetically pleasing visuals and the softer, romantic tone. Though the dramatic shifts in the movie are somewhat jarring, the heart of the project is the cozy fall setting, the big, beautiful house, and the aspirational look and feel of the town. Additionally, lots of positive and fun scenes are included to provide important breaks in the tension. The midnight margaritas sequence is a classic example of what viewers remember best from the movie’s story.
Overall, the movie condenses a good deal of the story to make it a tighter adaptation.
Love also plays an even larger role in the movie, as Sally’s romantic life is essential to the main conflict of the narrative. Additionally, some of the darker and more dangerous scenes are left out, like the threat of violence faced by Sally’s daughters at the hands of local teens. Overall, the movie condenses a good deal of the story to make it a tighter adaptation. If too many of the upsetting parts of the story were included, it would have made it difficult to watch.
4 Sally’s Daughters Are Older And More Complex In The Book
They play a much larger role and have their own stories.
Sally’s daughters, Kylie and Antonia, aren’t twins in the Practical Magic movie, but they’re much younger and seemingly closer in age than in the book. In the book, Kylie is in her early teens, and Antonia is in her late teens, allowing the story to explore much more of their development and position itself as a coming-of-age narrative. While the movie simply has the young girls get up to mischief and try to ensure their mom and her love interest, Gary (Aidan Quinn), end up together, the book lets them have fully developed desires and personalities.
One of the biggest issues that come between Sally and Gillian in the book is that Gillian begins to bond with Sally’s daughters, which is stressful for her. Sally doesn’t believe that Gillian is a good influence, and she has had a difficult time connecting to her daughters since her husband died. Additionally, Kylie and Antonia have love interests of their own, and the reader gets to see them become self-assured young women alongside their mother and aunt. At the end of the book, this allows the three generations of sisters to come together in a meaningful way.
3 The Sisters’ Desire To Be Normal Is Less Prominent In The Movie
Self-acceptance is a hard lesson for Sally and Gillian to learn as they grow up ostracized from their community because of the rumors surrounding them and their aunts.
Many of the best quotes in Practical Magic are about how magic isn’t something to be feared or shunned but something to be celebrated. Self-acceptance is a hard lesson for Sally and Gillian to learn as they grow up ostracized from their community because of the rumors surrounding them and their aunts. In the book, the rumors are just that, as far as most people outside the family are concerned. Sally and Gillian never do magic in public in the novel and want to get far away from their family. However, they do this in completely different fashions.
Sally and Gillian end up separating themselves from their aunts because they want to experience love and escape the Owens curse. Additionally, they want to distance themselves from magic. After the death of her husband, Sally moves her and her daughters away from the aunts and into the suburbs of New York, marking a significant change in setting between the book and movie as well. Additionally, there is no coven formed by the women of their community, as the ending of each story is markedly different.
2 The Book Gives Gillian A Love Interest
She and Sally both get their happily-ever-afters.
Though Sally and Gillian play equally important roles, in the movie, Sally is positioned as the protagonist, as the plot focuses on her grieving the loss of her husband and then finding new love. Plenty of the book centers around Sally’s grief, but it also gives ample time to Gillian’s recovery from the abuse she suffered at the hands of Jimmy (Goran Visnjic). When the sisters part ways in each version, Gillian runs off with a string of terrible men. The last of them is Jimmy before she returns to find Sally and asks for her help.
Throughout the film, Gillian is wholly uninterested in men after this point and is only concerned with keeping a low profile and getting the police off their trail. In the book, Sally’s love interest and investigator, Gary, doesn’t show up until nearly the end of the story. This shift gives Gillian ample time to fall in love with Ben, her romantic partner in the novel. Decentering Gillian’s romantic relationships was best for the movie’s plot, as it allowed the sisterly bond to take center stage. However, seeing Gillian happy at the end of the book was a bonus.
Related Was Maria’s Curse Real? Practical Magic’s Owens Women Curse Explained
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1 Jimmy Never Possesses Gillian In The Book
However, he does haunt the women and requires a ritual to be put to rest.
Much of Jimmy’s storyline is changed in the movie, and part of this is due to the closer relationship between Sally and Gillian. However, in the book, Gillian appears at Sally’s house unannounced after nearly two decades with Jimmy’s dead body in tow. Sally reluctantly helps her bury the body, but the women don’t try to resurrect him as they do in the film. Instead, they bury him under the lilacs, and his spirit grows vengeful nevertheless. Throughout the book, he makes the lilacs grow wild and begins appearing as a ghost to the Owens women.
The sisters, their aunts, and Sally’s daughters combine their powers to force Jimmy out of their lives, elevating the importance of familial love over mainstream acceptance.
While this threatens everyone in the family and town, the sisters aren’t spurred to action until a flood threatens to unearth Jimmy’s body. Being allowed to reach the surface would have devastating consequences, so this is when Sally and Gillian call on their aunts to help them put him to rest. Unlike the Practical Magic movie, the women in town don’t band together to save Gillian from possession. The sisters, their aunts, and Sally’s daughters combine their powers to force Jimmy out of their lives, elevating the importance of familial love over mainstream acceptance.
Practical Magic
Director Griffin Dunne
Release Date October 16, 1998
Cast Nicole Kidman , Sandra Bullock , Stockard Channing , Dianne Wiest , Goran Visnjic , Aidan Quinn , Evan Rachel Wood , Mark Feuerstein
Runtime 104 Minutes