Bewitched
After a sneak preview last week of Bewitched, the big-screen adaptation of the beloved ’60s TV series, I saw a lot of smiling people exit the theater saying that they thought the movie was cute. I’m glad they enjoyed themselves. Me, I thought the film was a disaster. The saddest thing is that you could see glimpses of a giddy romantic comedy trying to emerge from the mess. Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle) directed the movie and co-wrote the script with her sister Delia. They deserve the lion’s share of the blame.
This cinematic train wreck did not have to happen. If ever a TV series deserved to be made into a movie, it was Bewitched. A beautiful young witch falls in love with a mortal male and unsuccessfully tries to stop using her powers in order to fit into his world — now there’s a fun, flexible concept. Even better, the original series was full of memorable supporting characters, from Agnes Moorehead’s grand, hissing portrayal of Endora, the most formidable mother-in-law of all time, to Paul Lynde’s riotous Uncle Arthur, a lovable queen who stirred up trouble just for the hell of it.
The premise was there. The characters were there. So what do the Ephrons do? They lay a second premise right on top of everything. In their version, Bewitched is about to be remade as a new TV series. Will Ferrell plays Jack, the self-absorbed actor hired to portray husband Darrin. Nicole Kidman is Isabel, a real witch trying to live as a mortal. Through some handy contrivances, she gets hired to play nose-twitching wife Samantha and soon becomes the toast of Hollywood. Romance blossoms between the leads and Isabel must decide when to tell her co-star and boyfriend that she really is a witch.
Michael Caine co-stars as Nigel, Isabel’s suave warlock father, who is quite similar in style to Samantha’s thunderous father Maurice, played by Maurice Evans in the original show. Shirley MacLaine appears too briefly as Iris, the actor playing Endora in the remake series. About two-thirds of the way through the movie, Iris starts casting spells, by the way. Iris, the actor playing a witch.
Get this: Carole Shelley pops up as Aunt Clara, Isabel’s dingy relative, and the
characters actually comment on what a coincidence it is that Isabel has an aunt with the same name and traits as the Aunt Clara played so memorably in the series by Marion Lorne. And late in the film, Paul Lynde’s Uncle Arthur (Steve Carell does the impression) pops in from the TV series to console a brokenhearted Jack. Go figure.
If this sounds so much like a terribly strained version of the original series that you’re wondering why they didn’t just drop all the bullshit and shoot the original story, well, you’ve got me. Nothing particularly funny or interesting comes from the tacked-on stuff and the lack of internal logic only further weakens a script suffering from an extreme lack of consistency.
Some of this could be forgiven if the movie was hilarious, but alas, it is only occasionally funny. Will Ferrell delivers most of the laughs, but he is more muted than normal. I suspect he was struggling with his character, whose personality changes from scene to scene. Nicole Kidman’s performance is also problematic. She appears to be trying to make Isabel airy and otherworldly, but too often she comes off as distracted and overly delicate.
There are scattered moments in Bewitched where everything works, which only reminds me of how bad the Ephrons and company screwed up this project. Such a shame, such a shame.