<P> Practical Magic is a 1998 American romantic comedy film based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman . The film was directed by Griffin Dunne and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Aidan Quinn, and Goran Visnjic . </P> <P> Bullock and Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, who have always known they were different from each other . Raised by their aunts after their parents' death, the sisters grew up in a household that was anything but typical--their aunts fed them chocolate cake for breakfast and taught them the uses of practical magic . But the invocation of the Owens' sorcery also carries a price--some call it a curse: the men they fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death . Now adult women with very different personalities, the quiet Sally and the fiery Gillian must use all of their powers to fight the family curse and a swarm of supernatural forces that could take away all the Owens' lives . </P> <P> Maria Owens, a young witch, is exiled to Maria's Island in Massachusetts with her unborn child for escaping her execution . When her lover does not come to rescue her, she desperately casts a spell upon herself to stop falling in love due to heartbreak, only to die soon after . The spell becomes a curse for several generations . In the present day, Gillian and Sally Owens, two descendants of the Owens family, are taken in by their maternal aunts Frances and Jet after the death of their parents . Sally is the more gifted of the two while Gillian's talents are more in charm and persuasion, and both have been subject to ridicule during their youth . After witnessing their aunts cast a spell on a man for a woman who seems obsessed with having his love, Gillian decides to fall in love and Sally casts a true love spell to protect herself . </P> <P> The sisters cast an oath to each other using blood from both of their hands and Gillian leaves for Los Angeles . Sally meets and marries Michael, a local apple salesman . Years later, the two open their botanical shop Verbena and have two young daughters, Kylie and Antonia . Michael is killed after being hit by a truck . Devastated, Sally and her daughters return to the Owens home to live with the aunts, and realize that the aunts cast a spell so she could fall in love hoping that it would circumvent the curse . Sally decides that she and her daughters will not perform magic . As Gillian begins a relationship with Jimmy Angelov in Orlando, she can feel Sally's emotional state, and feeling that Sally needs her she drugs Jimmy to return to Massachusetts . </P>

Where was practical magic supposed to be set