Salt Lake Tribune Review
"Bewitched"? No, I was more bothered and bewildered by this frequently misfiring comedy, based on the classic '60s sitcom.
Give director
Nora Ephron ("Sleepless in Seattle") credit for trying to do something fresh with the classic-TV-to-movie update -- by mocking the whole process. Movie star Jack Wyatt (played by
Will Ferrell) is in a career slump, and agrees to take the Darren role in a new TV version of "Bewitched" as his comeback vehicle. But, prodded by his slimy agent (
Jason Schwartzman), Jack bigfoots his way through the new show, demanding rewrites to highlight Darren and insisting an unknown actress play the witchy Samantha.
Jack thinks he's found the perfect Samantha in Isabel Bigalow (played by
Nicole Kidman), a naive blonde he sees in a bookstore twitching her nose. She's perfect for the part, all right -- she's a genuine witch. Isabel has moved to L.A. to live without magic, though her vows of abstinence to her father (
Michael Caine) are as convincing as a rich girl's promise never to use Daddy's credit cards.
The irony of this "Bewitched" -- and I don't think Ephron did this on purpose -- is that the flaw that endangers Jack's TV series is the same one that derails the movie: an over-emphasis on
Will Ferrell's character that kills the chemistry between Isabel and Jack. After all, what made the original "Bewitched" so beloved wasn't the wacky plots or silly special effects; it was the balanced romantic byplay between the endearing Elizabeth Montgomery and the exasperated Dick York.
The script -- credited to Ephron and her sister Delia, but with an uncredited rewrite by Ferrell's pet screenwriter,
Adam McKay -- is a hodgepodge of false starts, dream sequences, celebrity cameos (like interviewer and frequent Ferrell satire target James Lipton) and segments literally put on "rewind" as if they never happened. The movie always seems ready to take off, then never does.
The fitful pacing leaves a squad of funny performers --
Steve Carell ("The Office") channelling
Paul Lynde's Uncle Arthur,
Amy Sedaris as Gladys Kravitz, and
Kristin Chenoweth (who played a witch, Glinda, in the Broadway musical "Wicked") as Isabel's neighbor -- fighting for screen time. The biggest waste is seeing
Shirley MacLaine, as an aging diva playing Samantha's mother Endora, prepared to tear into the scenery but never given the chance.
Some things in "Bewitched" work. Kidman is enjoyable when not playing the ditz, Caine casually lights things up every second he's on, and Ephron is effective in displaying the one kind of witchcraft she knows best -- movie magic -- in a romance-driven montage set in the TV studio.
But those pleasant moments have a hard time surfacing in this witch's brew of incompatible ingredients.
The rundown: Too much
Will Ferrell taints the brew in this tepid updating of the '60s sitcom.
Synopsis: Out in California's San Fernando Valley, Isabel is trying to reinvent herself. A naïve, good-natured witch, she is determined to disavow her supernatural powers and lead a normal life. At the same time--across town--Jack Wyatt, a tall, charming actor is trying to get his career back on track. He sets his sights on an updated version of the beloved 1960's situation comedy Bewitched, reconceived as a starring vehicle for himself in the role of the mere-mortal Darrin. Fate steps in when Jack accidentally runs into Isabel. He is immediately attracted to her and her nose, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the nose of Elizabeth Montgomery, who played Samantha in the original TV version of Bewitched. He becomes convinced she could play the witch, Samantha, in his new series. Isabel is also taken with Jack, seeing him as the quintessential mortal man, with whom she can settle down and lead the normal life she so desires. It turns out they're both right--but in ways neither of them ever imagined.
