Kind of nearly but not quite

Rating: 7/10 (2 March 2011)

I am so terribly vexed by films like this. Washington Irving wrote a perfectly good story - look, you can see it lurking just on the other side of the doorway into Tim Burton's film. Burton has taken the location - perfectly realised - the notion of a headless horseman, the name of the character Ichabod Crane, and then refashioned everything to suit his own purposes. One now recognises that this is Burton's long standing modus filmandi - take what you want and mould it to fit your own vision.
In the case of Sleepy Hollow, what results is good. Johnny Depp delivers a reliable characterisation, as usual, production design is great, the eclectic and starry supporting cast are all excellent, special effects are terrific (and frequently quite gory), and the story gallops along as speedily as Christopher Walken's eerie and genuinely creepy (usually) headless horseman.
But I suspect that Washington Irving might have been a bit upset.