Heads will roll in Tim Burton’s ‘Sleepy Hollow’

In Theaters `Sleepy Hollow’

Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow” is one of the best films ever made about decapitations.

But those coming to the film hoping to see Washington Irving’s classic tale, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” should take a cue from Burton’s abbreviated title: This film plucks from “Legend” what it wants, brutally severs what it doesn’t, and rewrites a story that needed no changes at all.

For fans of classics, it’s a bit disconcerting to sit through Burton’s version, especially since Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is now a New York Police constable and not a schoolteacher.

More startling is the diminished role of Brom Van Brunt (Casper Van Dien), whose presence is never given the importance Irving gave it in the original.

But then “Sleepy Hollow” has its own ideas and works on two entirely different planes — the visual and the narrative — neither of which forms a cohesive whole.

Burton and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki have cranked up the fog machines and dimmed the moon to create a somber, richly atmospheric film that truly is beautiful to look at, but the film’s characters never connect with any of it. They’re too campy, too emotionally removed, too oddly inhuman. Some might argue that that’s Burton’s style, which is true, but in “Beetlejuice” and the first two Batman films, he was nevertheless able to use his characters to form an emotional bond with his audience, something he doesn’t do here.

Since Depp and Christina Ricci are at the core of this film, much of its weight rests on them. But Ricci is utterly flat as Katrina Van Tassel and clearly uncomfortable speaking the film’s late 18th century dialogue; she never once convinces us that she’s this character.

Unlike her hysterical, unguarded performance as Dee Dee Truitt in “The Opposite of Sex,” Ricci is so stiff here, she undermines whatever chemistry she could have had with Depp, whose highly mannered performance is sweetly naive and one of the film’s selling points.

If “Sleepy Hollow” fails with Ricci, it more than compensates with Miranda Richardson’s mincing performance as Lady Van Tassel and with the spectacular vision of the Headless Horseman himself. Here, Burton triumphs. With expertly choreographed scenes of action, this Horseman rides, spectacularly swinging his blade as he literally severs dozens of heads.

If that’s your thing, this film won’t disappoint. But if you were hoping for a bit more from Burton, a director whose work has the distinction of being instantly recognizable, “Sleepy Hollow” might be too hollow to suit.

Grade: B-

On Video Entrapment

What John Amiel’s “Entrapment” lacks in sustained thrills, it more than compensates for with the inspired casting of Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

These two have such high-wattage chemistry, screen charisma and sex appeal, that easily could carry even the most predictable of plots — such as the one tucked within “Entrapment.”

The film follows Virginia Baker (Zeta-Jones), an insurance investigator who is so convinced a $28 million Rembrandt was stolen by the infamous art thief Robert MacDougal (Connery), she decides to use her mind (not to mention her body) to trap him in a complex plot that ultimately finds her joining him in heists around the world — including a daring robbery in Scotland and another in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia on the eve of the millennium.

“Entrapment” is the kind of film that never misses an opportunity to fawn over Zeta-Jones’ incredible curves while also capturing Connery’s wistful reaction to them. Filled with ridiculous plot twists and surprise scenarios, this thriller may be a hive of impossibilities — but director Amiel doesn’t care. He knows he has the gift of two stars, who are so good, so well-paired and so right for these roles, they consistently make it a pleasure to suspend disbelief.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear each Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, each Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “NEWS CENTER 5:30 Today” and “NEWS CENTER Tonight,” and each Saturday and Sunday on NEWS CENTER’s statewide “Morning Report.”