Apparently the number twenty-three is in everything.
So are Nutra-Sweet and cilantro, but we don’t see movies about them, now do we?
Fuckin’ unfair, I tell ya.
THE NUMBER 23 is the first movie I’ve ever seen that was based on a random e-mail from one of your friends you barely talk to who just thought it was “kewl.” The ever-presence of the number twenty-three drives a man crazier then a shithouse rat. Sure great movies have been made from even thinner premises. Darren Aronofsky’s PI, for instance, was about a man whose computer spit out the Hebrew name for God. But Aronofsky is a great director who envelopes the viewer in the heart of his story. This time around we have… Uh… Joel Schumacher.
Jim Carrey plays Walter Sparrow, a dog catcher who has a loving wife (Virginia Madsen) and son (I don’t give a shit). His wife comes upon a book one day in a quaint little bookstore called (duh) THE NUMBER 23. Walter reads a tad, and not only does he see striking similarities to his own life, but he gets enraptured in the lead character’s obsession with the number twenty-three, and how it shows up everywhere… If you look for it… Really hard… And do long division…
Firstly, if you’re gonna make a movie about someone who is obsessed with something, make the subject worth obsessing over. Like a woman, or money, or God, or those little Hummel figurines–ANYTHING other than facile coincidence that doesn’t hold up in every walk of life. As the movie unfolds, I kept wanting with all my heart to stand in my seat and scream “BULLSHIT!” This isn’t an all-pervading mystery throughout the universe. This is something your college roommate speculates endlessly about after a couple of bong-hits and a bag of Cheetos. It’s interesting for a couple of minutes, but then a backhand is in order.
Another problem is that Schumacher never lets us inside the obsession. It’s all completely external, from the outside looking in. Also, we don’t get to know the characters in Fernley Philips’ screenplay to the film. They’re so thinly developed and in complete thrall to the plot.
But Schumacher did make a handsome film, with no small help from Matthew Libatique, one of the best cinematographers alive. Sure he may not be very interested in what’s going on in this world with these people, but he wants to pay a shitload of homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO; complete with a blonde going dark and then back again, excessive paranoia and the eerily Herrmann-esque opening refrain to Harry Gregson-Wagner’s score. Once again, our Mr. Schumacher must be slapped and told to keep his eye on the ball.
But the one guy who was pulling his weight is Jim Carrey. When he is a good man, he is very good. When he is a badass, he is a HUGE badass. When he needs to cry, he… You get the picture. Regardless of whether the world is watching him or he’s talking through his ass-crack, he is one of the most intriguing actors we have. He may not be Oscar caliber like he’s been in some of his films like MAN ON THE MOON, but he is in fine form, nonetheless.
So THE NUMBER 23 is much ado about precious damn little. This may not be a Cardinal Sin, but it is when everyone on set thinks so except for one man. It is not worth paying ten bucks to see in a theatre.
But with a dime-bag in a dorm room? Rent it… You’ll be up all night…
2 out of 4
Get a FREE “The Number 23″ poster in our Message Board Store
Read all of Dr. Royce Clemens reviews in his Archives.
