tlavideo.com

Review

Director Burton rides once more into the fantastic with this gorgeous-looking, atmospheric and quite often spine-tingling adaptation of Washington Irving's perennial "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Depp is Ichabod Crane, here a young police inspector (not a schoolteacher) who comes to the small, quiet village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate several murders by beheading -- and comes face to face with the infamous Headless Horseman. Depp plays Crane as no heroic, which only adds to the flavor and fun of this slick, sleek entertainment. Burton and company have meticulously re-created 1790s New England, though their inspiration has come in the many terrific effects -- from the beheadings themselves (of which there are many) to the nightmarish Horseman who literally gallops from a tree. If this tale of yore has more of a 1990s accent to it than it should, it's a minor intrusion worth bearing; for Burton's end result is one of eerie beauty and irresistible chills.