Ghost Stories

 

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders.  There he discovers secret plots, a beautiful girl (Christina Ricci), and stories of a headless horseman (Christopher Walken).  But the horseman isn't a legend, but a ghost, and he has more heads to chop off before he's done. 

Quick Review: With any Tim Burton film, it is a competition between his poor sense of plotting, lackluster climaxes, and on-and-off casting with his innovative production design, beautiful art direction, and lush, dreamlike cinematography.  When the first wins, he gives us Planet of the Apes.  When the second, Sleepy Hollow.

Nothing in Sleepy Hollow looks real, nor does it look fake.  It is a bewitching world a step or two sideways from our own where even a beheading looks elegant.  The sky is forever overcast, tinting everything a radiant blue-black, not the gray we would expect.  Nothing is ugly and the grotesque is alluring.  This is a great picture to look at.  The story is surprisingly intriguing, and if it falls into a simple Hollywood finale, at least it's been a ride.  Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci have no chemistry together, and the script gives no reason to accept the required romance between the asexual Ichabod and the overly soft spoken Katrina, but both are good on their own, as delicate statues in Burton's strange world.   
I suppose this is a horror film.  There's plenty of gore, violence, and ghosts and witches.  There's even a few scares for the young or easily rattled.  But this feels like a gentle fantasy, a little gothic in nature, that makes a repulsive setting look inviting.  If only I had Burton's eye when I look around me.

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