A bizarre retelling of the story that, for my tastes, is a bit too outlandish at times - but still features a great performance by Depp

Rating: 6/10 (10 August 2006)

Tim Burton is very much a "cult" director in the sense that he has a huge circle of fans - a lot of them having emerged onto the Internet over the years - and outside of these fans there are a lot of critics who despise him for some reason. I lean towards the circle but I'd never say I'm a fan of his, and "Sleepy Hollow" is a good example of why Burton still has flaws as a filmmaker. His penchant for the outlandishly dark and eccentric storytelling is visually superb - this movie LOOKS great - but the narrative is weak, and the movie is so exaggerated in places that it's hard to take seriously. I'm mainly referencing scenes such as the one inside the church when a man has a tombstone cross thrust through his heart from hundreds of feet away, and is then dragged outside across the ground of the cemetery. I mean, it's just a bit too much.
Burton takes a lot of creative liberties with the story - some of which work, and others of which do not. The best aspect is Johnny Depp who turns in a brilliantly bizarre performance as Ichabod Crane, the Inspector sent to investigate recent murders only to find the place haunted by a demonic being.
The twist Burton adds to this story towards the end was too much for me - I thought, like many of Burton's film endings, the finale went way over-the-top. It turns into a fairly standard cinematic action romp with the eighteenth century equivalent of a modern car race taking place on a horse buggy, and a stupid explosion inside a windmill that just screams "HOLLYWOOD!" I recommend this is you are a Burton or Depp fan - if not, you probably won't enjoy it much. The sets are wonderful and the performance by Depp is a highlight, but other than that, there's not a lot going on here.