As I sat down to write this review of Bewitched (2005), another sign of the changing times occurred to me.  Today’s film is based on the hit television show from the 1960s (1964-1972) of the same name.  In thinking about the more recent film adaptation, I naturally thought of my childhood spent watching those re-runs because that was what my parents watched.  Of people my age, I am sure I am not alone in having this experience.  And that is just it: people my age.  The family sitting down after dinner together and viewing a beloved sitcom is a thing of the past.  I am also being nostalgic, which is part of the reason I avoided the movie twenty years ago.  My Faith has further ingrained in me the dangers of such feelings.  However, now that I analyze cinema, I decided to finally give it a chance.  It has the kind of title a Catholic would stereotypically avoid, but I cannot say I hated the experience.

It is also not accurate to say that Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman) hates being a witch at the beginning of Bewitched.  Still, if you will pardon the expression, she is disenchanted with relying on magical powers for everything and desires a more “normal” life.  To gain such an existence, she does conjure a home and many of its accoutrements.  In the process of doing so, she is visited by her father, Nigel Bigelow (Michael Caine), who thinks his daughter is making a mistake by trying to be someone else.  Frustrated with the contradiction, she casts one last spell to turn a clock back at a restaurant so she can still get breakfast, and then says she is giving it up.  Meanwhile, on the other side of Los Angeles, failing movie star Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) is trying not to give up on the hopes of reviving his career after a series of terrible films.  His agent, Ritchie (Jason Schwartzman), arranges for a meeting with producers Larry (Jim Turner) and Stu Robinson (Stephen Colbert) for a reboot of the eponymous show.  Though Jack thinks television is beneath him, Ritchie convinces him to go through with it.  Ritchie also does not want his client to come off as desperate, telling Jack to be more demanding.  In agreeing to take the role of Darrin Stephens, Jack wildly requests that Samantha Stephens be filled by an unknown.  Larry and Stu accede, but are not pleased by the prospect of scouring Hollywood for the right person.  I think you can guess who that is going to be.  To get there, Isabel eventually realizes that she needs employment.  She is also looking for a man, and as she puts it to Nigel, someone who needs her.  Thus, when Jack finds Isabel in a bookstore absentmindedly doing the familiar nose twinkle, he is convinced he has found his woman.  She is not entirely clear what is happening having not grown up with television.  Further, her naïveté has her believing that his professions of desire for her are of a romantic nature.  Before too long she is in the studio charming the crew with the nose maneuver, and then reading a few lines from the script.  As the shooting begins, though, it becomes clear that she is seen as superfluous.  She is not given any lines and her part is there simply to make Jack look better.  The truth of the situation is driven home when she overhears Jack and Ritchie talking about how she will soon be kicked off the show.  In other words, Jack had been lying to her from the beginning.  She confides this with a few of her friends, but it is her Aunt Clara (Carole Shelley), who comes up with the idea of putting a hex on Jack.  Isabel reasons that with her aunt performing the incantation, she can be absolved of breaking her vow of abstaining from witchcraft (even though she does it repeatedly).  Because Aunt Clara is not the sharpest with her craft, she overdoes the charm.  The result is to turn Jack into a love-struck puppy, figuratively speaking.  Initially, it is enough to make Isabel fall in love with him again, but at-length she realizes his feelings are not real.  Upon getting home, she rewinds the charm and makes it as if it never happened.  Instead, she barges into the studio the next morning threatening to quit and makes Jack understand how much of a jerk he has been.  It is unexpected and it makes him see her as something other than the slightly ditzy, shy person she has been up to this point.  In addition to getting her more lines and screen time, he develops genuine feelings for her.  Indeed, they go on a date that proceeds without the use of any wizardry.  So well are things now proceeding that she resolves to finally tell him the truth.  It takes place during a party he hosts at his place to celebrate the success they have had with the show thus far.  As they dance, she admits to being a witch without any further context.  At first, he takes her as joking until they go outside.  There, she conjures a broom, has him hold it, and lets him fly around on it a little.  Instead of reacting with understanding, he freaks out and says a bunch of Will Ferrell things.  She is hurt and prepares to leave Hollywood.  What changes is a visit by Uncle Arthur (Steve Carell) to Jack.  After seeing a number of witches on Halloween, Uncle Arthur reinforces the notion that Jack is still in love with Isabel.  Renewed, Jack gets to Isabel before she departs and they seemingly live happily ever after.

The people who were not happy with Bewitched were the critics, some of whom were quite harsh.  The New York Times called Bewitched an “unmitigated disaster.”  That is a little much.  At the same time, this Catholic was ready to agree with them before watching it.  Granted, the film is not meant to be taken seriously.  The same could be said for the original show.  At the same time, we should be sensitive to the temptation that such powers, imaginary or not, have had for people over the centuries.  After all, the movie makes the stereotypical claim that “every woman wants to be a witch.”  Whether that is true (it is not) is not the point, neither is the character of the magic performed, be it good or bad.  Witchcraft is sinful because it contravenes God’s power, who is the only One capable of handling such forces.  Further, the Almighty loves you and only wants the best for you.  Putting such abilities in the hands of humans can be disastrous as we see here.  To this end, there is an interesting statement made by Isabel in her somewhat puzzling pursuit of Jack.  Upon realizing the problem with Aunt Clara’s hex, Isabel declares that, “It doesn’t mean anything unless it’s real.”  God’s love for you and me is real, and that should be all the magic anyone needs.  In a deeper sense, this is what God created us for, it is what is “normal” for us.  I emphasize that word because it is something Isabel says many times she desires.  What is amazing about being who we are is that we can share in this Divine miracle any time we want.  That is our normal.

“Normal” is also a good word to describe Bewitched.  It is not the disaster that critics at the time said it was.  There is a certain cleverness to the show within the movie, and the way they handle the references.  At any rate, it is a big shrug for me.