SLEEPY HOLLOW A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 1999 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
"Heads will roll" is the campy tagline for the latest film based on Washington Irving's classic fable about a horseman with a penchant for rendering his victims headless, but the ratings board figured there were too many decapitations in Tim Burton's latest extravaganza and slapped "Sleepy Hollow" with an "R." That's a bit of a blow to a film which, in hindsight, might have done better with a Halloween--rather than a Thanksgiving--release.
Burton's film is a strange fish regardless. Although typically ghoulish and macabre for the director of "Batman" and "Beetlejuice," it's too bleak for kids, who'll have to drag a seventeen-year-old along with them to see it. And it's too relentless for adults, who are likely to grow tired of its unsparing focus on severed heads bouncing through the undergrowth. Still, they might find some comfort in Rick Heinrichs' Burton-esque production design or Johnny Depp's no-nonsense performance as New York constable Ichabod Crane.
Depp, in his third film with the director (following "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood"), is deliciously affected as Crane, a dandy of a policeman circa 1799 who's sent to the town of Sleepy Hollow in the Hudson Islands to investigate the mysterious slayings of three of its locals. "Their heads were...gone?" gulps Depp when the town's representatives fill him in on the gory goings-on. Depp has a great way of speaking in the film: mannered, polite, and with just a hint of the King's English.
Sleepy Hollow's spokespersons are an interesting mix of talent decked out in fascinating period wardrobes that make them look like characters in a Lewis Carroll novel, among them Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Gough, and Richard Griffiths. Christina Ricci, who plays Katrina Van Tassel, provides the pulchritudinous love interest but isn't given much to do and certainly doesn't connect in any way with Depp's character. Also on board, albeit briefly, is horror veteran Christopher Lee, whose Hammer horror films of the '60s "Sleepy Hollow" most closely resembles.
The "R" rating is unfortunate because "Sleepy Hollow," like Hammer's slew of Dracula pictures, is clearly a gothic fantasy and its bloodlettings more ludicrously camp than graphic (although Burton never spares us the post-decapitation shot and seems to revel in squirting blood in Depp's face at every opportunity). Since Irving's novel is the stuff of American folklore, however, it's a pity Burton couldn't have done more with it. He's dressed it up some, and then painted it depressingly black. And he's milked a great performance from Depp but asked him, for the most part, only to react to lifeless corpses.
"Sleepy Hollow" never quite finds its footing despite some strong performances and a great look (including a creepy-looking windmill in the closing scenes that recalls Burton's debut short, "Frankenweenie"). As for that tagline, heads are more likely to be scratched, and it's the eyes that will be doing the rolling during "Sleepy Hollow."
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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