Bewitched - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution movie review

'Bewitched': New takes on the old sitcom

By JILL VEJNOSKA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

First things first. Yes, Samantha does twitch her nose in the big-screen version of "Bewitched." Some things you just don't mess with.

But she also tugs on her ear to make magic. No, wait, that's Isabel (Nicole Kidman) when she's not playing Samantha opposite Jack's (Will Ferrell) Darrin on the fake sitcom embedded in this movie that's based on a real TV show from the 1960s.

Columbia Pictures

'Bewitched'

B-

The verdict: Not magic, but not a standard witchy-washy remake either.

Director: Nora Ephron
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine
Run time: 105 minutes
Release date: June 24, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for some language, including sex and drug references, and partial nudity.
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Columbia Pictures

It's all somewhat confusing. Yet also kind of clever, especially since Hollywood's usual method of "translating" TV shows for the big screen is more akin to Xerox-ing. Instead of just sticking newer, hotter names in an old script — the "If-the-cutoffs-fit..." approach that'll give us Jessica Simpson in "The Dukes of Hazzard" — this "Bewitched" strives to be something more whenever it's not exactly the same as the original TV show. The end result of all this blurring of the new and old, the unreal and the real, is a fast-paced, quip-witted movie that sends out mixed signals about its deeper message.

What's that, only tans and swimming holes should be deep in summer? And TV's "Bewitched" wasn't exactly Shakespearean tragedy? (Ignore that episode where Julius Caesar unexpectedly appeared!) True, but some intriguing social issues lurked just beneath its suburban split-level surface. A mixed marriage between a mortal and a witch could work, we learned, if their love was real. And if the witch stayed home and pretended she was nothing special.

It's clear this is a different "Bewitched" from an opening shot of the Hollywood sign. Like almost every modern single woman — especially a witch who yearns to be "normal" — Isabel has a job. Or she very soon will, via comically self-absorbed, dim-bulb-ish actor Jack.

After his movie "Last Year in Katmandu" bombs, Jack sets his sights on a TV remake of "Bewitched" where Darrin gets all the good jokes. His search for "a nobody to play Samantha" leads him to Isabel, who's engaged in that most mortal of pursuits — reading a self-help book titled "What Should I Do With My Life." She's tired of witchhood's empty "instant gratification," but "Bewitched" cleverly hints the alternative isn't perfect: Isabel happily microwaves popcorn, opens pop-tops and swoons when a man says the magic words: "I need you."

When Isabel finally figures out she's just a pretty sitcom prop, she's furious. Or as furious as Kidman's whispery, wide-eyed innocent portrayal can convey. Enter Aunt Clara (Carole Shelley) to cast a hex that quite literally renders Jack bewitched by Isabel. While Isabel loves the new Jack, she can't help being bothered and bewildered over whether any of it's real. And how would Jack react if he knew she really was a witch?

Uh, not well. Which isn't half-bad with Ferrell. Jack only has one gear — over the top — and he's equally funny demanding on-set perks ("three trailers ... every Wednesday is Cake Day!") or crooning a tunelessly nutty love song. None of it ever feels dangerously scary or showy — especially when Shirley MacLaine shows up to teach an amusing master class in scenery-chewing as Iris, the actress playing Endora on the sitcom who's someone we'd like to know more about. (Most attentive pupil: Steve Carell, not even bothering to pretend he's not hammily imitating Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur.)

But Jack never feels very substantive either. That's the major problem with this movie that should celebrate the transformative powers of "ordinary" love, but ends up feeling like an indictment in some ways. It's never very clear why the magical Isabel falls for Jack, unless it's to furnish a depressingly easy, age-old answer to that self-help book question: It's something to do with her life.

Better we should believe that Jack's finally, fully embracing Isabel's specialness gives them a chance for real happiness. But just when "Bewitched" seems to be making that progressive, uplifting point, it hexes itself with a jokily confusing ending that blurs the lines again between old and new, real and unreal.

Maybe that's a deep statement on the magical, yet fragile, nature of love. Or maybe we're just being set up for a sequel.

They could call it "Next Year in Katmandu."