Sleepy Hollow (1999)

2.5 out of 4

Starring: Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Michael Gambon, Casper van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Ian McDiarmid, Miranda Richardson, Christoper Walken

Directors: Tim Burton

Time: 102 mins

Tim Burton is an enigma. He is known for creating visually sumptuous films, such as the pastel suburbia and forboding castle in Edward Scissorhands, and the dark, gothic Gotham City in Batman. Yet, for all his talents at establishing mood and atmosphere, his films have rarely been critical successes. While a film like Edward Scissorhands was a wonderful modern fairy tale, Batman was overtaken by Jack Nicholson's hyperkinetic Joker. His latest effort, Sleepy Hollow, based on Washington Irving's novel about a headless horseman that terrorises a small town in upper New York state, is reflective of his uneven direction. The film is a visual triumph: awash with atmosphere, and seemingly bathed in perpetual fog and darkness. The story, however, never really establishes any narrative power, weighed down by soulless characters that we never identify with. Like the title, the film is ultimately hollow.

Johnny Depp, one of Burton's regular collaborators (they previously worked together in Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood), stars as Ichabod Crane, a young New York city constable who is sent upstate to investigate some gruesome murders involving the ghost of a headless horseman. There he meets the town's elders, which include the Reverend Steenwyck (Jones of Ferris Bueller fame) and Doctor Lancaster (McDiarmid from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), as well as the wealthy Baltus van Tassel (Gambon) and his witchcraft-practising daughter Katrina (Ricci, from The Addams Family). Ichabod's probing leads to sinister revelations (as probings usually do), even as the horseman continues his murderous rampage, with plenty of bloody head-loppings (as one would expect when the film's tag line is "Heads will roll"). Meanwhile, he and Katrina fall in love (as the leads also usually do). And everything comes together, of course, in the fiery, all-action climax.

I haven't read the original novel, so I can't tell how faithful this adaptation is. What we essentially have here is a murder mystery set in pre-Industrial Age America, with a dash of the supernatural and plenty of blood. Though the film always remains interesting, anchored as it is by the aforementioned Burton flair for visuals, the characters, as written, don't garner enough emotional attachment for the film to really succeed. Depp plays Ichabod as a slightly confused oddball, and Ricci is radiant, but we don't care whether Ichabod or Katrina or any of the other townsfolk lives or dies. All that's left is flash but no substance. It is nice, however, to see horror legend Christopher Lee in a cameo at the beginning, as the burgomaster who provides Ichabod with his task, as well as Jeffrey Jones in a rare role (though he's not as memorable as he was in Ferris Bueller's Day Off).

Burton confirms he is a master of visuals with Sleepy Hollow, but he needs a script that can take advantage of his talent as well as providing strong characters. When the horseman comes charging through the forest, we should be gasping with fear and curiosity. What I felt, however, was indifferent detachment.

(c) Joe Wong