Tim Burton's best movie

Rating: 7/10 (28 November 1999)

I didn't feel that way at first, but in retrospect I really do think it's his best movie. The plot is secondary to the visuals, but it's done well. Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci give thoughtful, romantic performances as a detective from New York City and the beautiful villager he falls for while investigating a series of gruesome murders the town believes is being executed by a faceless spectre riding on a horse. Whilst everything he knows as a scientist falls down around him, his love for her and her faith in him remain constant. And this is not the innocent Sleepy Hollow of Washington Irving's tale-- this is a farmtown overflowing with adultery, witchcraft, and murder.	And THEN, there are the visuals. The film is filled with images that are vintage Burton: Ichabod (Depp) puts on investigating glasses, and the left lens is twice the size of the right; the staggering Tree of the Dead, whose branches twist in grotesque angles and stream with blood; and the Horseman himself, who lops off heads cleanly and with precision, has a decidedly otherwordly style.	Overall, this is a gorgeous film brimming over with high comedy and winning romance. The identity of the person in cahoots with the Horseman is no big surprise, but getting there is the fun in this.