Whodunit? The writer or the editor?

Rating: Null/10 (28 November 1999)

Tim Burton shows himself once again to be a master of mood and setting. The look and feel of "Sleepy Hollow" is exactly what one comes to expect of Burton's work, with a dark and foreboding blue tint to everything, and Danny Elfman's superb music keeping the pace. Unfortunately, the good stuff ends there.
It is hard to judge the acting, as they were given such abysmal dialogue that it would have been tough to come off as genuine. There are anachronisms, cliches and plain cheap humor throughout. Christina Ricci looks better than she has in a while, and Johnny Depp is... well... Johnny Depp, as always. Christopher Walken is well cast as the Horseman, but is given a foolish mouthpiece that limits his dialogue to grunts. Perhaps they didn't have to pay him as much if he didn't speak? Even Miranda Richardson, usually a superb actress, is reduced to dumping out her entire personal history in one speech so that her character doesn't appear two-dimensional.
Yes, the effects were marvelous and the action scenes were truly well done, but the main problem here is the plot. It seems to me that the film originally ended up being about an hour too long, and the editing team cut out major chunks of the movie to shorten it. I was constantly saying to myself "What? How did they figure that out?" or "Gee... that comment seems to be a bit premature...". It was like there were big pieces of the story missing. Particularly when you consider the fact that some characters (Brom?) are introduced and then never seen again. We don't even care when people get killed by the horseman because we don't even know who they are yet!
Overall, I'd say it was a good effort, but lost much in the execution. Work on the script, cut out some characters, give a little less gore and a little more story. The plot was hollow...