great visuals done in by lame story

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 2000)

`Sleepy Hollow,' though no worse than dozens of other similarly designed films, seems as good a spot as any to pull back and ask ourselves this question: are special effects ruining the movies? Time was when filmmakers, sorely hampered by technological limitations, were forced to make a virtue out of necessity and develop scripts filled with subtlety, imagination and humor to help sustain an audience's attention. Now, all a filmmaker need do it seems is provide the barest essentials in terms of plot and character development in the vain hope that the astonishingly realistic special effects will single-handedly carry the day. Such a philosophy, however, far more often than not, leaves the audience feeling assaulted, detached and empty, both mentally and emotionally.
Like so many films, `Sleepy Hollow' starts out promisingly. No one is better at establishing a mood of bizarre, otherworldly eeriness than director Tim Burton and `Sleepy Hollow' is certainly a total triumph in terms of its art direction, set decoration and cinematography. Through these elements, Burton creates an entire sunless world of mist-shrouded bogs and forests, filled with twisted, gnarled trees, somber graveyards and dreary lonely roads that greet many a quaking traveler with doom and destruction. For, in this quaint New England village of Sleepy Hollow, a number of citizens have been recently dispatched in a most inglorious way - cut down, literally, by the avenging headless horseman, their heads sliced off and carried away leaving only the decapitated bodies behind as a reminder of their earthly existence. Into this scene of inexplicable death and carnage comes Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp), a New York investigator sent to the town to unravel the mystery.
Very loosely based on Washington Irving's classic tale, `Sleepy Hollow,' almost inevitably it seems, violates the spirit of the original through the customary reliance on over-literalization. The headless horseman, like so many figures of classic horror literature, is a creature best left in the abstract, for once he has been realized on screen, much of the majesty and mystery that comprise his aura simply evaporate. Absolutely nothing is left to the imagination. He is interesting and frightening as long as he remains off-stage. The moment he gets off his horse and starts swinging his sword in full view of the camera he loses those qualities. Despite the magnificent atmosphere, we find ourselves growing more and more restless as the body count begins to swell, especially since the explanation for the horseman's actions, when it is finally revealed to us, comes across as both confused and uninspired. Once again, a film filled with so much quality and potential at the beginning simply collapses under the weight of conventional storytelling and over-reliance on special effects.
The writer attempts to bring humanity to Ichabod by emphasizing his nervousness, hesitancy and squeamishness, yet Depp is allowed to play the scenes with such a comic undertone that he undercuts the thriller aspects of the work. This technique worked brilliantly in his portrayal of Ed Wood because that was a film filled with warmhearted affection for its subject. Here, the tone works against the intended mood and leaves the audience confused as to just what type of film `Sleepy Hollow' was intended to be. The flat performances delivered by Christina Ricci and Miranda Richardson don't help a bit either.
Thus, `Sleepy Hollow,' though definitely worth seeing for its many technical marvels, fails to emerge as a very compelling film overall. Though I know it has become fashionable lately to pooh-pooh `The Blair Witch Project' for its lack of visualization and cinematic finesse, I sincerely believe that the sense of terror lurking in its forest far surpasses that found in Burton's, for all the latter's big budget impressiveness. Once again, a movie proves that money alone - and great visuals to boot - cannot buy - or guarantee - a quality film.