I could quite possibly be very biased in my opinion of this movie, seeing as how it’s my all time favorite, but every movie reviewer is ultimately going to be giving their own personal opinions so, here goes.

     The major reason why I love this movie is because of the idea that, even if you’re not a witch... you can still enjoy magic and romance in your every day life. Who hasn’t felt like there wasn’t anything to look forward to? That life was down in the gutters and seemed like it was going to just keep going down? Or even, that something really REALLY bad has happened and you don’t know how you’re ever going to get over it? This reminds me of a fabulous quote from You’ve Got Mail “People always say that change is a good thing, but what it really means is that something that you didn't want to happen, has happened.”  This is so true. When people say that they’re really just trying to cheer you up, and they don’t really KNOW that the change is going to be a good thing. This movie has no shortage of seemingly bad changes. Husbands seem to die from a “family curse”, two sisters accidentally seem to kill a man, and the town seems to have it out for these strange women they just don’t understand.

     The movie begins with the Owens’ family ancestor Maria about to be hanged for being a witch. After her lover leaves her stranded she puts a curse upon herself that death will come to any man who dares love an Owens woman. Who hasn’t done rash things after being jilted by an ex lover? This curse is then fulfilled when we see young versions of Sandra Bullock (Sally Owens) and Nicole Kidman (Gillian Owens) going to live with their aunts Fran (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest) after their mother and father die. From this point on the sisters take very different directions in life. Sally hates love, while Gillian is in love with it. Later, after a little help from the aunts, Sally finally finds love and settles down with two beautiful miniature versions of Sally and Gillian. Can anyone see the repeating patterns of family cycles here yet? Then BOOM! Mr. wonderful husband dies and Sally has lost her zest for life. Gillian meanwhile is having a blast loving life and men by the bucketful, until she meets the wrong man (Jimmy Angelov) played by Goran Visnjic, one of many wrong men but this one is definitely WRONG. And who hasn’t fallen for the wrong man? You can almost forgive her when you see Goran’s smoldering demeanor and hear his husky accent. The movie picks up its pace here and doesn’t slow down as Gillian gets in trouble and Sally goes to bail her out. A man accidentally dies in the process and its starting to look like this family has the worst luck in the world! But things start to turn around as a late coming love interest in the form of the sweet and strapping Officer Gary Hallet (played by Aidan Quinn) shows up to solve the mystery of the missing man, as well as pursue some secretive personal motives.

No more spoilers here but I will let you in on a little secret… the overall message for the end of this movie as well as the movie as a whole, is love and faith conquers all. Watch it when you’ve lost some of yours… always picks me right up ;) 

This sweet little trailer sums the movie up wonderfully http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1S_LTVq1OY