Bewitched

Directed by Nora Ephron, Bewitched follows movie star Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) as he agrees to star in an updated version of the eponymous television show alongside a newcomer named Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman) – with complications ensuing after it’s revealed said newcomer is, in fact, a witch herself. Filmmaker Ephron, armed with her and Delia Ephron’s screenplay, does a nice job of initially drawing the viewer into the increasingly erratic proceedings, as Bewitched boasts a briskly-paced and thoroughly appealing opening stretch that benefits from Ephron’s lighthearted touch and the efforts of a uniformly charming roster of performers – with Ferrell and Kidman’s affable efforts matched by such charming periphery players as Shirkley MacLaine, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Caine. And although the movie’s first half boasts a number of legitimately amusing sequences, including a laugh-out-loud funny bit wherein Isabel uses her magic to humiliate Jack at a dinner party, Bewitched progresses into a meandering midsection that contains exceedingly little in the way of forward momentum – which, in turn, paves the way for a seemingly endless third act that is, to put it mildly, rather anticlimactic. The upbeat finale is subsequently hardly able to pack the agreeable, satisfying punch for which Ephron is clearly striving, and it’s impossible, in the end, to label Bewitched as anything less than a complete misfire that squanders its promising setup and talented cast.

*1/2 out of ****