Almost to be filed under the category of guilty pleasure is the 2005 movie “Bewitched” featuring Nicole Kidman, except that it wasn’t that much of a pleasure. I grew up
watching the television show starring Elizabeth Montgomery and was curious about how the film version might be. Typically I find film versions of movies to be embarrassingly bad: “The
Wild, Wild, West,” “The Brady Bunch,” and “Leave it to Beaver” are prime examples. A notable exception are the Star Trek movies that are better than the
original television series. Unfortunately “Bewitched” falls in the embarrassing category. Instead of recreating the series the movie is based on the premise that a production
company is going to recreate the television series with a new series. Isabel Bigelow, played by Nicole Kidman, who is, in the movie, a real-life witch who is trying to go straight, is hired
to play the role of Samantha Stevens. . . . .
. . . Kidman is very good in the role, is cute as a bug when she twitches her nose, and is convincing in her innocence of the ways of mere mortals. Opposite
Kidman’s Samantha is the biggest embarrassment of the film, Darren played by Will Ferrell. Ferrell plays his usual low-brow, go-for-the-cheapest-laugh-possible character. His
performance nearly ruins the movie.
