Bewitched Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)July 6th, 2005
"Bewitched" - No Magic
There's no magic in the air for this cheery but unsubstantial film. You watch the actors try as
hard as they can, but it's like watching a few
very excited people try to sell something that actually isn't there. I'm thinking that in a
prior life, they tried to sell oceanfront
property in the Florida Everglades. What they
appear to want to create is a meet-cute movie set inside the familiar grounds of a 60s TV show.
That's "Bewitched," where a mortal marries a
witch, and this pairing leads to all sorts of
zany domestic problems as well as problem solving ideas. There are a whole lot of funny ideas just waiting to be exploited!
Here, the lead is played by Jack Wyatt (Will
Ferrell), whose stardom is beginning to fade but certainly not his mad love for himself. Ferrell
has this sort of guerrilla style physical comedy
that has endeared him to audiences. He tries to
get the laugh regardless of how lame the material
is. As Wyatt, he is wildly narcissistic and off-the-wall demanding. You can only smile when
you hear him bark out to his assistant "make 20
cups of cappuccino and give me the best one."
Wyatt will play opposite Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman) who has that magic quality - the cute
nose twitch that made the original Bewitched
witch famous. Both have chemistry together.
She's adorable. She has the down-home sweetness
that we've come to appreciate from actresses such
as Reese Witherspoon and Julia Roberts. I'm continually amazed at the depth that Kidman
possesses. Of course, the irony is that while
Wyatt thinks that Bigelow is just a regular
mortal playing a witch on his TV show, we know
that she is a real witch (we know this from
watching the trailers). So, there's the meet
cute followed by the confrontation followed by
the happy resolution. Oops, did I give the
entire plot away?
Well, it's not difficult to see that coming! But therein lies the problem. We see everything
coming. And because we aren't surprised by one
event, there's nothing to move us. We seem to
know when the laugh is coming, and so the impact
is diffused when the moment finally arrives. A
more interesting idea, perhaps, was to focus on
the fleeting fame that one in Hollywood might
have and then the tumultuous slide into
anonymity. A magical witch who can turn back
time would be a handy asset. Maybe this film should've been based on "I Dream of Jeannie."
Lack of character development certainly hexes the film. They have all the zing of plastic lawn ornaments. There are several seemingly
extraneous characters. This includes a
production assistant that just seems to tag
along, a neighbor with a helium-infused voice who makes us laugh because of her helium-infused
voice, and even Bigelow's father who is played by Michael Caine. It must have been a slow season
for scripts for the mighty Caine.
In the end, the project just doesn't do a whole
lot with the material. Partly, it's probably
because there wasn't a whole lot of material to
work with. It seems like a long film despite the short 90 minute running time. "Bewitched" is an unoffending but lackluster offering. Even the
theme song of the original TV show is more
memorable than this update. Apparently, industriousness was left at the drawing boards
when they came up with this one.
Grade: C-
S: 0 out of 0
L: 0 out of 0
V: 0 out of 0
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
