Washed out and wishy washy

Rating: 1/10 (23 April 2001)

By now, Tim Burton has a whole genre all to himself, and this is just yet another tired and tiresome entry. There's nothing here we haven't seen (and heard) before, time and time again.
Pros: corsets and cleavages.
Cons: just about everything else.
Sorry fans, it's just a big old predictable yawn from start to finish. The narrative meanders, the dialogue is tedious and forced, and the whole construction is based around a series of mood shots rather than any actual plot. It's uninvolving, it's formulaic, it's overly smug, it's just plain *dull*.
And accents... yes, there are some decent attempts at 20th century psuedo-plummy English, but the thing is, people in England in 1799 were talking like Yosemite Sam. Do try and keep up.