With Nicole Kidman, Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine in the cast, it should have been easy to make at least a passable movie version of the vintage American TV sitcom Bewitched. Instead, the filmmakers took an oh-so-clever postmodern approach that delivers few real laughs.

The basic premise is that a movie star coming off a few flop films has been cast as the forgettable husband in an updated version of Bewitched. Jack Wyatt, played by the highly overrated Will Ferrell, plans to shift the focus of the series to himself by having an unknown actress cast as his witchy suburban wife. The main skill his co-star needs is the ability to twitch her nose like the original Samantha (a signal in the TV series that some magic was about to happen).

Wyatt finds Isabel, played by Nicole Kidman in cute-comedy mode, about to sneeze at a bookstore. The central twist of the film is that Isabel is a real witch who has recently sworn off magic and settled into a house in Los Angeles to try to lead a normal life — just like Samantha in the old series.

Isabel takes the role but soon finds that Wyatt wants to make sure that she never gets any lines in the show. He wants it to be all about him. Ferrell does some slapstick pratfalls on the set and delivers a few mediocre lines, but with the postmodern structure, it's not clear if he's playing somebody with no comic sense of timing or is truly that unfunny. In the film plot line, the test audience rates him very poorly, so maybe he is just very good in the part.

In Isabel's spacious home, which she has gotten rent-free through magic, there is a hint of what the old series was like. Isabel's neighbors and new friends have no clue she is really a witch, even though she uses a bit of harmless magic around the house. Her witchy relatives pop in unexpectedly, threatening to blow Isabel's cover. Michael Caine adds a touch of class as Isabel's genteel father. He's a bit of a rogue and doesn't see why his daughter wants to opt for the mundane suburban life.

On the remake of the show, Shirley MacLaine plays the TV witch's mother. She brings a bit of fun by hamming up her appearances, which are usually surrounded by smoke effects. Unfortunately, none of the scenes of the new show are played out long enough. All the audience sees are little bits that go wrong, like a dog missing its cue.

The film has a padded-out feel. Twice, Isabel tries some magic and is unhappy with the results. She twitches her nose, and the last couple minutes of film run backward. Then the scene is played out again without magic. Add a montage of scenes from the original TV series and another montage when Wyatt starts mooning over Isabel, and you've got a lot of repeated and stock footage.