"We need to use our brains"

Rating: 3/10 (4 March 2012)

Throughout the course of the 1990s Tim Burton established himself as a cinematic brand. The audience expects certain things from a Burton movie – hallowe'en-horror stories, meek and sensitive heroes, dark and twisted imagery, and of course Johnny Depp. Sleepy Hollow contains all theses things, and was one of his most prestigious productions to date. As such, its box office success was a foregone conclusion. It's real value as a movie however is by no means guaranteed.
Burton's pictures have sometimes been described as fairy tales for adults. This is all very well in itself, but does Sleepy Hollow really need to talk down to its audience so? The frequent gore and sex suggests it's not aimed at kids, but it's given the simplistic overlay of a children's film, only without the charm. One of the weakest aspects is the series of flashbacks to Ichabod's childhood, which are simultaneously boringly clichéd and too wildly hysterical to be taken seriously (not to mention the slightly disturbing fact that Lisa Marie's cleavage is continually hovering over the young Ichabod's head). With inventions like this Burton and his writers are presumably paying homage to the B-horrors of the 1960s, but really they just seem like a trashy and charmless copy of something that was endearing despite its trashiness. The dialogue meanwhile ranges from trite and insipid to frankly ignorant (1800 was not a new millennium!) Of course in movies like this atmosphere is often more important than plotting, but in Sleepy Hollow the atmosphere is laid on so thickly – and with so little imagination – that it becomes virtually meaningless. For the opening shots of a letter being sealed, the imagery could hardly be more obvious if Burton himself had popped up on screen and said "Red wax looks a bit like blood, doesn't it, eh?" The special effects are too cartoonish to be properly horrific, but not enough to be comical. When we see the horseman's flesh re-growing, he dips off the screen, presumably so the shot can be changed to allow for some stupid waggly tongue special effect – as if that makes any sense whatsoever.
Burton was such a reputable figure by this point that he always secured big names for his casts, and if nothing else Sleepy Hollow contains some really wonderful players. Michael Gambon brings some gravity to his role, and I'm always glad to see Miranda Richardson, even if it's only that she still shows occasional flashes of "Queenie" from Blackadder II. But it's also a shame that so many of these excellent players don't get to show their full potential, mostly through the weakness of the screenplay or a simple lack of screen time. It seems a particular waste to have Christopher Walken in a part where he doesn't get to speak, or even really change his facial expression. But just as the supporting players are disappointingly underused, the leads are disappointing full stop. Johnny Depp was clearly trying to go for something a bit different with his fussy, slightly effeminate Ichabod Crane, but he makes for a rather dull and uninspiring hero. Meanwhile Christina Ricci's acting is only marginally better than that of the dead tree.
I can't deny that Sleepy Hollow at least looks good. The beautifully stylised cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki sometimes evokes the graininess of early cinema, at other times fills the frame with shadows while still keeping everything in clear definition. But nice as it looks, this is nothing more than high-class gloss for this dry twig of a movie. Sleepy Hollow features everything one would expect from a Burton picture, and all the lavishness that goes with a director of such renown, and yet it contains very little else of substance.