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Bewitched a film by Nora Ephron

Nicole Kidman is one of those actors than can do phenominal work - Dogville, Birth, The Human Stain - and turn around right in the middle and star in the remake of The Stepford Wives, a ridiculously tepid version of the original. Well Nicole, you did it again. Bewitched, which is actually more of a retooling than a remake of the classic TV show, has the same problems going for it that her Stepford debacle had. Almost nobody in this cast, which includes Will Ferrell, Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine, Steve Carell, David Alan Grier and Jason Schwartzman, seems to be having any fun whatsoever. Even in the scenes where fun should be unsueing, the actors just seem like all they want is their paycheck so they can go home. The one exception to this problem, which is what differs from Stepford, is Nicole Kidman herself. She seems to be having all the fun in the room. Perhaps tired of such morose, yet brilliantly played, roles in her last couple of films, she has decided to let it all out here - leaving no room for any other fun to be had. Or maybe she is just a lot happier over her paycheck, which I'm sure is much higher than the rest of the cast. Although Kidman has the nose twitch down and does bear a resemblence to Elizabeth Montgomery's Samantha (one of my first boyhood crushes), all-in-all, Nora Ephron's Bewitched is nothing more than a lackluster little comedy, without much comedy to speak of and without much energy blowing through its sails. [06/24/05]

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