Sleepy to Follow
Happy go lucky wanderer, Ichabod Crane (Brent Carver) arrives in Sleepy Hollow with a plan of becoming the new schoolmaster, not that they have needed one having had no school for the past year. On meeting the attractive Katrina Van Tassel (Rachelle Lefevre) Ichabod finds himself becoming infatuated and fantasizing about how he would marry her given a chance. But Ichabod is not the only one who has feelings for Katrina and blacksmith, Brom Bones (Paul Lemelin), dresses as the legendary Headless Horseman to try and put the fear of God in to Ichabod to scare him off. But the prank goes wrong when the real Headless Horseman appears.
The whole time whilst watching "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" I found myself struggling to stay interested in this version of the much adapted Washington Irving story and the simple reason is the acting style got on my nerves pretty much as soon as it started. The only way I can describe it is this version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a costume drama with almost a tongue in cheek, cheesy style to the way the actors play their characters and deliver their lines kind of reminiscent to made for TV costume dramas from the late 60s and early 70s. It is a style which doesn't do a thing for me.
But the style of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is not the only issue I have and considering we are talking about a movie which features the legend of the Headless Horseman it spends far too long going on about Ichabod, his fantasies and his mishaps as he falls for Katrina. It is another reason why the final movie was a tedious experience for me although I have heard this version is quite faithful to the original story and maybe for those who have read the original Washington Irving story this will entertain more.
What this all boils down to is that "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was not for me and from spending so much time on the build up to having an almost cheesy tongue in cheek style to the production and the acting it all ended up a bit of a slog.
