Kurt Loder on Dark Shadows

Being a Tim Burton movie, the new Dark Shadows is an exercise in the sort of gothic fantabula with which the director's fans are familiar. It is also the eighth Burton film to star Johnny Depp. This has often been a good thing in the past: Depp's natural star power is concentrated, in the manner of Harrison Ford, by his rather narrow range, and he's an immensely likable performer. Here, though, writes Kurt Loder, Depp's trademark charm can't fully animate a movie that, much like the 1999 Sleepy Hollow, tends to wander about in search of a purpose.