Dir. Nora Ephron, US, 2005, 102 mins
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine
Extrapolating from rather than remaking the popular 60s American sitcom of the same name, Bewitched the movie takes a post-modern slant with Ferrell starring as Jack Wyatt, an actor looking to kick start his career by re-inventing the aforementioned well-loved series. Seeking to put the emphasis on the character of the mortal husband Darrin (originally played in the series by Dick York), Jack now needs to find his ‘Samantha’. He finds her in the shape of Isabel, a woman who not only bears a passing resemblance to the original actress, Elizabeth Montgomery, she can also do her famous magic nose wriggle. In fact, what he doesn’t know is that she has something else in common with the character – Isabel, too, is a real-life witch!
Bewitched is a slab serving of rich ’n’ creamy Neopolitan, a movie-sundae:– three-flavours, three worlds: the everyday vanilla world we all know and live in (replete with the mundane house/job hunting, bad hair days and frustrating relationships); the strawberry fields forever world, the bewitching realm of magic (where tarot pays the bills); and finally the chocolate box world of that fabulous ‘60s TV series (still enjoying re-runs on US television). The film taps into and mines the series, extrapolating concepts, borrowing original performers and even layering in snatches of that beloved black & white favourite like aniseed slivers.
This story of a witch who wants ‘normal’ (or thinks she does) brings to mind the Pulp song ‘Common People’ – she can never really know what it’s like to be ‘common’ because she can always fall back on magic.
The film opens with a dramatic visual swoop into California off the coast and over the ferris wheel (very much reminiscent of the opening to The Lost Boys). Down into Hollywood, we ride over the infamous sign and on into the rich suburbs of the San Fernando Valley – this search for the ‘normal’ happens in the Los Angeles area, surely the opening joke of this comedy?
We’re very much in La-La land here and if you unashamedly indulge in a bit of Hollywood-kitsch cute-fest now and then (for example you get up at 2am and watch the Oscars from start to finish, get your E! via satellite and subscribe to e! online), and if you like that post-modern, self-referencing, faintly ironical, multi-layering homage/pastiche approach to filmmaking … there’s plenty here to entertain and delight.
Bewitched is wrongly hyped. It looks like a star vehicle for Kidman and Ferrell: mostly for Ferrell who, while enjoyable and certainly funny in places, comes across like the character he plays- a low-brow low-scoring actor playing the ‘bore’. It’s an over-performed cram-it-all-in delivery of the amphetamine school, an uncontrolled Robin-Williams meets Jim-Carrey: too much, too over the top, too Saturday Night Live, too overtly television – and very nearly upstaged by a great turn from Jason Schwartzman. He does, however, show the potential for range during the sequences where he is supposed to be under Aunt Clara’s hex. Here he demonstrates some understated acting, more in the calibre of the Woody Allen piece Melinda Melinda, where he showed some class, but when making the leap to the big-screen from TV, he should learn that too much face-action is tiring for the audience and robs the piece of authenticity.
Kidman isn’t the trademark witch of the original and is more interesting as Isabel the real-life witch questing for ‘normality’ than as Isabel the accidental-actress playing Samantha the witch-pretending-to-be-normal in the remake - and if you followed that, you’ll follow the film! Kidman plays her Isabel with breathy childlike wonder … in turn leaving the audience wondering: is it a bird named Marilyn? is she in pain? … and then to realise … no … it’s Nicole getting in touch with her inner-Meg-Ryan (with a little help from Nora).
Ever easy on the eye, MacLaine, as the actress who plays Samantha’s mother Endora in the remake, is in top form. Such a great performer is a joy to watch and she brings delightful panache to the part. She clearly enjoys playing the delicious devious diva and turns in a sparkling performance, light and satisfying. Caine (as Isabel’s father Nigel) is his usual casually charming Saville-Row self – there’s no stretch for him here but it’s a comfort to have some stable, mature
performances to counter-balance the over-bearing Ferrell.
The film’s marketing emphasis would be better placed on Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally and You Got Mail) – the director with the romantic-comedy forte. This one, co-written with her sister Delia, is more com than rom, and a bit too much like that delicious summer ice-cream that leaves you feeling a bit sick.
The film fails spectacularly during the Frank Sinatra musical-montage. Sadly, this is a very important point as it is supposed to interweave the three ‘worlds’, culminating in the flash-point of romantic love … but it’s a sizzleless kiss.
By now you’ve gotten the joke, laughed at the sophisticated self-important dialogue, connected nostalgically with an old favourite (humming along to the toe-tapping theme-song) and even been entranced by the spectacle of it all, but since you haven’t fall in love with them and their love affair, the film does not leave you “no-spells happy”.
And that is a central question: is there such a thing as “no-spells happy” in love? The film doesn’t say so, although it thinks it does … all the romantic entanglements portrayed need magic of some kind to get started and occasional bursts of beguile to maintain. It would seem that when it comes to affairs of the heart, at least some degree of ongoing enchantment is required.
Juliea Stewart
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