"That's your problem: You don't want to be in love, you want to be in love in a movie."

Those lines aren't from writer-director Nora Ephron's latest film, Bewitched, a clever retooling of the 1960s sitcom. But that heartfelt wish-that life could be more like the movies, and our real lives more like our fantasies-figures in almost every film Ephron has made, including Sleepless in Seattle, from which that bit of pop wisdom comes.

Ephron doesn't always get a lot of respect for her romantic comedies, but she certainly gets our great romance with the movies. And as the daughter of Hollywood screenwriters (Henry and Phoebe Ephron, whose credits include the Tracy-Hepburn comedy Desk Set) and the sister of another (Delia Ephron, with whom she cowrote Bewitched and several of her previous films), she also gets just how unromantic the actual making of a movie or a TV show can be, something she has great fun with in Bewitched.

Bewitched opens with the sight of one of Hollywood's biggest stars coming down to earth, alighting from her broomstick and announcing her wish to lead a normal life. Nicole Kidman is Isabel, a witch determined to renounce her magic powers-that is, her ability to wiggle her nose and, movie-like, conjure up everything she wants, be it the perfect house (a sweet little cottage complete with white picket fence), the perfect car (a VW Beetle convertible) and the perfect romance (a man who shows up on her doorstep bearing flowers, jewelry and a Cat Stevens CD). "I want to be like everyone else," she tells her skeptical warlock father, played by a dapper and exquisitely dry Michael Caine.

But giving up your fantasies is hard work. Faced with a $400 tab after a whirlwind shopping spree, Isabel hops off the wagon and transforms a Tarot card into a more practical form of magic: a Visa card. "This is my absolutely last thing," she swears, none too convincingly.

Happily, a job and a potential suitor soon present themselves in the form of Jack Wyatt-though, as a Prince Charming, Jack leaves a lot to be desired. A vain, insecure movie star given to pronouncements like "The important thing is . . . I have no idea what the important thing is," Jack is desperate to revive his flagging career and settles on a remake of Bewitched reconceived as a vehicle for Darrin. After a chance meeting with Isabel, he offers her the role of Samantha on the spot, not just because she can wiggle her nose like a pro, but because as a complete unknown, she couldn't possibly upstage him.

Or could she? Not surprisingly, Isabel proves a natural in the role, and Jack must also fend off the scene-stealing Endora, played with hammy finesse by Shirley MacLaine. "How did this happen?!" the out-maneuvered Jack wails. "I'm Darrin."

Fortunately, Will Ferrell is Jack Wyatt, and there's no more charming or clever a jerk working in the movies today, whether he's playing the petulant star ("I want three trailers," he tells the show's cowed producers, "and a leopard") or, after Isabel casts yet another spell, the hopelessly besotted boyfriend ("Let's make love in a hot air balloon! In a candy factory! In a petting zoo!"). Leaping and twirling around Isabel like a lovesick Labrador, Ferrell gleefully illustrates Ephron's larger point: dating a movie star isn't all it's cracked up to be, and neither is getting exactly what you wish for.

Having played Virginia Woolf and a series of other dark heroines, Kidman proves she can also play normal, not to mention downright demure and girlish. It's just that girl-next-door is not the most interesting thing she can do, and the ghost of Meg Ryan hovers over more than one scene. So do the ghosts of Ephron movies past, especially when she engages in familiar ticks like ladling on a Louis Armstrong or Frank Sinatra song to underscore a point, or closing the film with one or both characters literally running after happiness. After all, when it comes to romantic comedy, the important thing is to keep your wits about you.