Films
Practical Magic
Director: Griffin Dunne
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing
Original Release: 1998
Griffin Dunne directed this romantic fantasy adapted from the 1995 Alice Hoffman novel about the Owens family of witches, regarded as outcasts in the town where they live. Aunt Frances (Stockard Channing) and her sister Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest) tried to pass on practical magic skills to their nieces, subdued Sally (Sandra Bullock) and fiery Gillian (Nicole Kidman), brought up by the two aunts after their parents died. Denying her powers, Sally attempted to lead a life minus magic. Her marriage to Michael (Mark Feuerstein) brought two daughters – and Michael’s death. Moving into the aunt’s seaside mansion, the widowed Sally warns the aunts not to influence her daughters. Sally intervenes when Gillian suffers at the hands of her abusive boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Visnic), and Arizona detective Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn), investigating Jimmy’s disappearance, turns up in town, eyeing Gillian and Sally as the leading suspects.
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Visit Warner Bros. Studios’ Practical Magic site.
Love the movie? Read the book Practical Magic and the prequels The Rules of Magic and Magic Lessons.
Aquamarine
Director: Elizabeth Allen
Cast: Emma Roberts, Joanna ‘Jojo’ Levesque, Sara Paxton, Jake McDorman
Original Release: 2006
Two teenagers think they have problems until they come to the rescue of a girl with a fishy story to tell in this teen-oriented comedy. Thirteen-year-old Claire (Emma Roberts) and same-aged Hailey (Joanne “JoJo” Levesque) are two close friends living in Tampa, FL, who are facing a separation in a few weeks – Claire’s mother is a marine biologist who has been given a prestigious new job in Australia, meaning the girls are not likely to see much of each other again. While the girls wonder if there’s anything they can do to avoid the inevitable, a storm breaks out and the waves toss an unusual example of sea life into Hailey’s swimming pool – Aquamarine (Sara Paxton), a teenaged mermaid who has some problems of her own. Aquamarine’s father is a leader of the undersea world who has arranged for his daughter to marry a boy whom she doesn’t care for; unless Aquamarine can prove to him that it’s real, she will have to go through with the wedding. After learning of her romantic dilemma, Claire and Hailey decide to help her by teaching her how to turn the head of Raymond (Jake McDorman), a cute lifeguard at the nearby beach.
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Love the movie? Read the book Aquamarine.
The River King
Director: Nick Willing
Cast: Edward Burns, Jennifer Ehle
Original Release: 2004
The body of a prep school student has been discovered in a nearby river, and though the death was originally listed as a suicide one detective believes that it may have actually been the result of a fraternity hazing gone awry in director Nick Willing’s snowbound mystery. Detective Abel Grey (Edward Burns) isn’t willing to write off the case as a suicide just yet, and with a little help from sympathetic teacher Betsy Chase (Jennifer Ehle) he hopes to uncover the truth behind the mysterious and untimely death. As a series of elusive clues lead Detective Grey ever closer to the truth, he is forced to confront not only the increasingly complex facts in the case of the student death, but his own repressed emotions related to the suicide of his older brother years earlier as well.
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Love the movie? Read the book The River King.
Independence Day
Director: Robert Mandel
Cast: Kathleen Quinlan, David Keith, Frances Sternhagen
Original Release: 1983
The title Independence Day refers to the usual Fourth of July fireworks festival in the U.S. but also to the dilemma of Mary Ann Taylor (Kathleen Quinlan) who lives in a small town but has a big ambition to go to the city and study photography for a profession -- should she go, or should she stay in her hometown with the man she loves?
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