Depp saves a sleepy and hollow fantasy flick

Rating: 5/10 (10 April 2008)

Despite a creepy atmosphere and a likable and amusing performance by Johnny Depp as the squeamish Constable Crane, Sleepy Hollow isn't as enjoyable as it has the potential to be due to too much conspiracy and not enough of anything else.
Ichabod Crane believes in using scientific methods to uphold truth and justice and is sent to the isolated farming community of Sleepy Hollow to detect the murderer who has been beheading victims. This will put his methods to the test. A test he presumably fails, as he is faced with the truth that the supernatural exists, and the stories that the villagers tell of a ghostly headless horseman coming to kill them is proved true. A shame, because a scientific solution to the inbred community's superstition looked like it would have been an interesting plot. And while Depp's constantly scared performance is entertaining, it doesn't make much sense for a man who is a policeman interested in cutting open bodies. And for a man so intent on fact and reason, he very quickly changes his tune when he sees the headless horseman and is suddenly an expert on ghosts and magic.
Everyone, even those not part of the conspiracy at the centre of the plot, acts suspiciously and guilty at all times, and the conspiracy, filled with too many red herrings and half uttered statements, is very hard to follow. Also, the villain is unfortunately easily guessed from the billing order. As for the headless horseman, he is strangely treated sympathetically, despite having been a mass-murdering loon in life, and a brutal assassin in death who kills at least one, possibly more, victims without orders.
Christina Ricci gives the worst performance of the film as the bland love interest Katrina, trundling out her lines as if she has no idea what they mean. It comes across as if Ricci, a normally vibrant actor, is deliberately sabotaging her role as revenge for being cast as such a dull character.
Sleepy Hollow is funny, exciting and scary when it's good, but too many dull characters, an irritating sleepiness to important events and a needlessly convoluted plot get in the way. For a film based on a short story in which the headless horseman didn't even exist, the writers have gone far too over the top to come up with a replacement narrative. This would be one to miss if it wasn't for Johnny Depp giving a career-best performance.