"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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