I remember Melville once talking about making a colour film in which all the colour is stripped out. Well this is about as close as you can get. I was watching Chivo's almost monochrome imagery of Sleepy Hollow and wondering if he had been using McCabe and Mrs Miller as a reference. It's definitely the most black-and-white colour film I've seen.
Begins promisingly and humorously with Depp trying to use scientific methods to investigate crimes, being send to SH to investigate beheadings. Realises that the Headless Horseman is real...
Depp is funny and he's ably supported by Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon (it was filmed in England), Jeffrey Jones, Casper Van Dein, Richard Griffiths, Christopher Walken... Christopher Lee and (in cameo) Martin Landau.
The tone isn't consistent, towards the end it was more making me think of those old Universal horror pictures of the thirties. And I remember feeling at one point that this was all a load of nonsense, which of course it is. And it didn't end where you'd expect - Depp returning to NYC having solved the case (sort of). And he'd have trouble explaining that one - which is maybe why they didn't go there.
The production design and music and everything are good (Rick Heinrichs, Danny Elfman) but it's all a bit much.
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