Review of "Bewitched," DVD version

Review of

Bewitched, DVD version

Five out of five stars

 To open this review, two facts need to be stated. The first is that I am not a fan of the stupid guy humor of Will Ferrell, my preference is for the more cerebral jokes. Secondly, I have only a passing interest in the old television show “Bewitched.” I have seen a few episodes and am aware of the basic premises of the characters, but that is it.

 With that said, I found this movie to be a refreshing comedy, Nicole Kidman is superb as the witch that is trying to be human, naïve in so many ways, yet still possessing a great deal of self-control. Will Ferrell is his usual self, playing a dumb, self-centered man, yet in this context it worked for me. When he was faced with what would be a traumatic event to learn that he was involved with a person with such power he eventually was able to come to grips with it. Furthermore, he never asked the Kidman character to do something that would lead to personal fame and fortune.

 The premise is that Jack Wyatt (Ferrell) is to play Darrin and Isabel (Kidman) is to play Samantha in a remake of the classic television comedy “Bewitched.” It is a television show within a movie and many things go wrong, but in the end they go right. Most of the supporting characters of the television show also make appearances, there is even a brief appearance of what was my favorite character Gladys Kravitz. The name is a rare one, but was the first name of my maternal grandmother, so it was stuck in my mind when I was young.

 While this is fundamentally a romantic comedy, there are many underlying threads that make it more than that. It is about being really different yet finding a way to fit into the world.