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In Burton's loose, highly stylized re-imagining of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) isn't a knobby, awkward schoolteacher but a constable who's prone to rather dignified-looking bumbling. The story opens in 1799 New York: Ichabod has been assigned to investigate a number of horrific murders upstate, in which people's heads have been lopped off (with a fire-hot sword, no less) by the Headless Horseman. The Horseman was formerly a ruthless Hessian mercenary (played in the flashback sequences by a deliciously deranged Christopher Walken) who'd been beheaded and plopped into a sloppy grave by Revolutionary War soldiers, and who now haunts the nearby wood doing his dirty work.

Sleepy Hollow Directed by Tim Burton Starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon

Crane -- who keeps his painfully obvious observations in a beautifully illustrated and calligraphic book, a symbol of his yearning to mask his inadequacies with pure style -- doubts that the Headless Horseman is really a ghost and begins to suspect that the town elders are somehow involved. Meanwhile, he also faces recurring nightmares based on his own childhood trauma, as well as a burgeoning attraction to a young woman of the town, Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), who dabbles in witchcraft.

Depp isn't Irving's Ichabod Crane, but it hardly matters. With his translucent, silent-film-star skin and lovely hollowed cheeks, this Ichabod is a tortured, if not terribly bright, goth dreamboat. Depp gives even his awkward, clueless stabs at scientific observations an almost debonair quality. And the way he hides behind his young friend and helper (Marc Pickering) in times of terror plays up his endearing fragility. Depp's wit and cunning are nicely understated here, lurking just beneath his somber black topcoats and high, winged collars. His stammering and fake-confident strutting give the movie just a touch of brightness, without disturbing its brooding undertones.

Ricci suits Depp nicely as the inscrutable and luscious Katrina: she's both a quiet sexpot, capable of ruffling the rather straitlaced Ichabod's feathers, and a mysteriously calming presence. (In one scene, she meets Ichabod in the wood, astride a white horse and draped in a white cloak embroidered with red roses; the sight of her is simply breathtaking.) Miranda Richardson as Lady Van Tassel, Katrina's stepmother, is crisply enjoyable, and her bald-eyebrowed look alone is a source of weird fascination. Burton has a knack for choosing the right look for each character -- think of the way the bruised-looking, sleepless-night eye makeup Depp wore in "Edward Scissorhands" seemed to underscore the character's essential conscientiousness -- and he uses those skills beautifully here.

Burton also has a keen eye for casting. As the town elders, Michael Gambon, Richard Griffiths, Jeffrey Jones and Michael Gough all have that perfect look of depraved authority. And in a witty homage to Hammer horror films, he's cast Christopher Lee as a stonily severe judge.

Next page | Ichabod, meet Oedipus