Bewitched DVD > Reviews > Bewitched, bothered or bewildered?

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Disliked it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Unmemorable
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Unmemorable

Advantages:	Briefly entertaining
Disadvantages:	Annoying performances, poor script and storyline

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Jack Wyatt is an egotistical actor who wants to star in a film remake of Bewitched as Darrin, preferably without his co-star, the lovely Samantha, having much of a role at all. To this end, he insists on a co-star with the same kind of nose-wiggle as the original Samantha, but after hundreds of interviews, he is not content with anyone...until he runs into Isabel in a book shop. Persuading Isabel, who is really a witch trying to be an ordinary mortal, to take on the role is fairly easy and things initially go smoothly, until Isabel realises what Jack's game is and starts using spells to get things her own way...falling in love with Jack along the way. Will Jack find out the truth? If so, how will he take the news?

Nicole Kidman is Isabel. I have a lot of admiration for her as an actress; she has proven herself time and time again (in my opinion) in films such as The Hours, The Others and Moulin Rouge. However, here, she has made a mistake; I don't really understand why she decided to take on the role in the first place. As Isabel, I felt as though I was watching my mum do something really embarrassing - not that Kidman is as old as my mum. Her high-pitched squeak and silly nose wiggle just irritated me. I know that I am not the target audience for this film, but I have watched many other films of this genre and have been able to enjoy the silliness for what it is. Here, I couldn't get into the role at all and spent most of the film wondering why she had chosen to do it. She does look completely fantastic though.

I'm not the biggest fan of Will Ferrell at the best of times, and this is certainly not one of his best performances. As Jack, he is supposed to be an egotistical, narcisstic jerk; the only problem is that for this role to be convincing, the actor needed to be good looking...and (in my opinion) Ferrell is far from being so. Nor was he a particularly likeable character, so Isabel's sudden falling for him is just not very realistic. With all this going on, I found it very hard to concentrate on the storyline and his part in it, and found his slapstick humour and tendency to over-act went straight over the top of my head. This type of film may be very fitting for the sort of acting he likes to do, but I didn't think he showed off his talent here at all.

The saving graces of this film were Michael Caine, who plays Isabel's father, Shirley Maclaine, who playes Iris/Endora and Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies), who plays Isabel's friend, Maria. Michael Caine only has a small role, but along with Shirley Maclaine, manages to add a touch of much needed class to the proceedings. Chenoweth managed to do what Kidman didn't - her role was cute without being irritating - and would probably have made a much better Isabel. Unfortunately, the performances of these three was not enough to save the film.

Like many people, I expected the film to be a remake of the popular television series. I remember watching and loving the original when I was young and was really looking forward to seeing what two talented actors could make of the remake. For reasons that I don't entirely understand, the writers decided to make it the story of two actors, one a witch, remaking the original. I personally don't like this angle - I think that they should have adapted the original instead of going off on a tangent and over-complicating what is really a very basic concept. I suppose though that is so very different from the original that at least it doesn't attempt to overshadow it in any way.

Strangely for a film that is supposed to be a comedy, I didn't find myself laughing very much; in fact I didn't really get past a smile. I didn't even find Steve Carrell's cameo role to be very funny - and I usually love what he does. On the plus side, though, I did watch the film all the way through and may even watch it again if I catch it on television - it is completely fluffy and rather bland, but if you are feeling brain-dead and want to watch something that doesn't require thought, then this does tick quite a few boxes.

I had read a number of reviews panning this film before I watched it, so didn't have the highest of expectations - as such, I wasn't all that disappointed with the film. And there are some good performances, just not from the two main characters. If you're in the mood for something silly and (preferably) haven't seen the original television show, then you might just enjoy this. Don't get your hopes too high though. Two stars out of five.

The DVD is available from play.com for £4.99, but no doubt there will be re-runs on television around Christmas-time - I'd wait for those rather than wasting your money.

Classification: PG

Running time: 102 minutes