`MAGIC' BOTHERSOME, BEWILDERING, NOT TOO BEWITCHING.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Film Critic

``Practical Magic'' tells us that it's important to accept who you are - even if you're a witch.

That's basically the goofball moral of this uneven mishmash of a movie, a film that blends romance, rah-rah sisterhood, family drama and outlandish supernatural effects into a bland, watered-down concoction that rarely bubbles into anything appetizing.

``Practical Magic'' isn't totally without its charms. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock make for appealing witches and the film has fun with some of its abracadabra. But bewitching it isn't; bothering and bewildering it often is.

Kidman and Bullock play sisters who are continuing their family's hocus-pocus heritage. For more than 300 years, Owens women have been casting spells in their quaint New England village, much to the dismay of the local townsfolk. Only now, their neighbors just shun them instead of taking them to the gallows. Still it isn't much of an existence, and you wonder why they just don't move to a place where they would blend in - say, New Orleans maybe.

Another problem comes from a curse. Any man who loves an Owens woman winds up six feet underground. Sally (Bullock) deals with this by running from love. Gillian (Kidman) copes by using her witchcraft to seduce an assortment of grungy losers who wouldn't know true love unless it came from a syringe.

Gillian eventually ends up in a rather abusive relationship and the sisters have to dust off their dormant powers to cope with the mess. This leads to more trouble (see what happens when you deny who you are?) and takes the movie to its ridiculous final act, which alternates between silly supernatural effects and soppy romance. It's tough to decide which is more grating.

Director Griffin Dunne and writers Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldsman and Adam Brooks have some pretty good source material in Alice Hoffman's novel, but they have blunted the book's edginess into a feel-good froth. Dunne never settles on a tone, and the unsteady mix of genres seem to come more from a demographic study taken at Lilith Fair than any desire to make a good movie.

Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing are largely wasted as the elder witches, as is Aidan Quinn as a law enforcement love interest. And as engaging as Bullock is, it seems like we just saw her give the same performance in ``Hope Floats.''

``Practical Magic'' isn't an awful movie. It has a few good laughs, but largely wastes its resources. We're still waiting for a good witch movie to cast its spell on us. This isn't it.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Practical Magic'' (PG-13; violence, sensuality, themes of witchcraft).

The stars: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing, Aidan Quinn.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Griffin Dunne. Screenplay by Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldsman and Adam Brooks. Released by Warner Bros.

Running time: One hour, 45 minutes.

Playing: Citywide

Our rating: Two stars.

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Photo

Photo: Sandra Bullock portrays the descendent of a New England family with a 300-year-long supernatural heritage in ``Practical Magic.''