Sleepy Hollow

A sumptuously stylized, oddly traditional, darkly comical and unmistakably Tim Burton-esque take on a uniquely American fairy tale, this gothic retelling of Washington Irving's classic Headless Horseman yarn reinvents Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) as a constable sent to the hamlet of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a spate of beheadings that local legend has pinned on the noggin-less ghost of a mad Revolutionary War mercenary. Bizarre, analytical and a dabbler in the then-embryonic science of forensics, this cutting edge Crane is the movie's best asset. But his intelligence is set aside after a couple reels, supplanted with a silly, hocus-pocus whodunit and a contrived romantic subplot involving a miscast Christina Ricci. Depp's appeal, Burton's wildly creative style and a sense of humor are the only things that keep the movie, which also stars Miranda Richardson and Christopher Walken, afloat. A strong optional purchase. (R. Blackwelder)