Impossibly rich, violently gory, and loads of fun.

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 1999)

"Sleepy Hollow" is an experience. It's a love story, a murder mystery, an action-adventure, and film rich with symbols, icons, legends, and superstition. It's great.
The story picks up once Ichabod Crane arrives in dreary, upstate Sleepy Hollow. Things really get going after Crane's initial exposure to the Horseman's methods and sees the Horseman himself. It all reaches a glorious crescendo once the mystery begins to unravel and it becomes clear how well-thought-out it all is...
It's a movie full of invention and elegance, tempered with vicious violence and inspired performances. Johnny Depp's ideal performance as Crane is a rock from which the town eccentrics seem that much more interesting. He portrays what may be the first action hero who faints...more than once!
Kudos, also, to Christopher Walken, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson(whose character here is NOTHING like the Queen in the British comedy "BlackAdder II"), and the young actor who plays the surviving son of one of the Horseman's victims.
Go see it. Go see it for the child in you, and go see it for the adult you are. Romance and magic are not lost notions in our cynical world, for this movie shows us they are alive and well.