Bewitched

Nora Ephron directed and co-wrote this updated adaptation of a classic situation comedy that also casts a satirical eye on the entertainment industry. Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) is a movie star whose career has been going into a slow and steady decline. Desperate for a project that will give his reputation a jump start, Jack agrees to star in a film version of the once-popular television series Bewitched as hapless hubby Darrin Stephens, under the condition that an unknown actress be cast as the female lead so he won't be upstaged. After auditioning dozens of women who fail to make the grade, Jack meets lovely and charming Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman), and is immediately certain she's the perfect choice to play witch-turned-housewife Samantha. However, there's one thing neither Jack nor the producers of the film know — Isabel really is a witch, and while she's been trying to get along without her powers to better fit in among mortals, she will use her special talents when need be. The film also stars Michael Caine as Isabel's father, Nigel, Shirley MacLaine as Iris Smythson (the actress hired to play Endora), and Jason Schwartzman as Jack's agent. — Mark Deming

Review (AMG)
Nora Ephron could have followed any number of fertile avenues thanks to her intriguing post-modern premise for Bewitched. Instead she goes down her well-trod path of mirthless romantic comedy. Failing as a Hollywood satire, an ode to the original source material, and as a romantic comedy, the inert Bewitched leaves an audience stranded with nothing to care about. The five leads, Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, and Kristin Chenoweth all work very hard to wring what few laughs there are to get, but they each seem to be acting in a different movie. The only performer who registers in a lasting way is Steve Carell who shows up in the movie's third act as Uncle Arthur. His performance evokes Paul Lynde without mimicking him outright. Although Uncle Arthur's appearance and his actions are as arbitrary as everything else in the film, Carell brings an energy and an idiosyncratic comic timing to the third act that is missing from all that came before. By the time the always-dependable Amy Sedaris and Richard Kind show up in the final scene as the meta-Kravitzs, one wishes Ephron had simply served up a straight-up remake of the original television show with Carell, Sedaris, and Kind getting much of the best material. More likely, one might wish for that film as long as it were directed and written by anyone but her. — Perry Seibert