Wow!

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2000)

I suppose any comment from me will be suspect, because I usually like Tim Burton's movies (even Mars Attacks!, 'nuff said!). I went to see this movie because it was by Burton: I like Washington Irving's stories in general, but I always considered Sleepy Hollow as a rather stupid story. Just in case you loved the movie and wish to check out the book, I say, well, don't. If I remember correctly in the story Ichabod Crane is a highly irritating schoolmaster, Katrina is a stolid but good-looking future Hausfrau, and Brom is just like in the movie, only it's he who gets the girl in the end. The screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker (he of Se7en), very intelligently turns the story into a fairy-talish comic-horror whodunit, Ichabod into an all-questioning detective whose superiors can't wait to get rid of, and Katrina into a smart witch apprentice. Johnny Depp plays his Ichabod with comic zest, Christina Ricci proves once again to be a quite talented young lady, and the rest of the cast is also excellent, including a stunning Christopher Walken as the Hessian Horseman (in an uncredited appearance, I believe), and Christopher Lee and Martin Landau also shine in small parts. The Gothic-Old Flemish atmosphere is superb. This is quite the movie for you if you like your movies to be unusual and unpredictable.