The Number 23 (R)
Scott:
Scott: Tonight I am reviewing The Number 23
starring Jim Carrey as a man who becomes obsessed with the number 23.
Mike was not able to attend the movie.
Scott: What did I think?
Surprisingly, I liked it. There are some things you should know about me, things that may indicate why I liked it. Growing up my zip code was 23235, 23 – 23 – 5 = 2+3. So, you can see with that, that I was predestined to like this movie. The biggest issue I had with the movie was how things were adding up to 23. 2012 = 20+1+2 = 23, 9473=9+4+7+3=23 or 1913=19+13=32, reverse that, 23. There was no standard to coming up with this value so, for me, 23 became a joke.
Seriously, though, once you get past the ridiculous numbers game, it’s not a bad movie. I was drawn by Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) as he slowly became more infatuated with this mysterious number. At times, you think he’s sane trying to understand what’s going on and other times you think he is insane and it’s all in his head.
Sparrow finds a book, The Number 23, in a book store. In it, there are mentions to all of these events that happened, or are related to the number 23. In reading this book, Sparrow starts to associate events in the book with events in his own life. He becomes obsessed with the link between the book and himself.
His wife, Agatha Sparrow, played by the lovely Virginia Madsen is terrific. She actually picks out this book that drives her husband insane. The whole time he descends into madness, she is there to keep nudging him along. Her insistence on his finishing the book seemed sometimes out of place considering what it was doing to him.
As Carrey reads the books we see the book played out on screen. Carrey becomes Fingerling, a sax playing detective who is driven nuts by 23. Madsen is his S&M mistress Fabrizia. That storyline is somewhat disjointed and mostly centers on kinky sex.
Danny Hudson drops in for dual roles as both Agatha’s friend Isaac French, and Fabrizia’s lover Dr. Miles Phoenix. He plays the bad guy as Phoenix and the misunderstood friend as French.
This was directed by Joel Schumacher and has a similar feel to an earlier work of his, 8MM. It was a dark movie in subject and lighting. The movie started out bright, but as the movie wore on the Walter Sparrow and the film, both grew darker.
Cinematographer Matthew Libatuque, did a wonderful job of contrasting the two storylines.
There were some excellent shots throughout the movie. One part in particular, where they stroll through memory lane, was pretty impressive.
This was writer Fernley Phillips' first turn at writing and producing. The dialogue was campy at times and the number thing was screwy, but overall it’s not a bad first outing. The movie even managed to keep me guessing for a long time.
Scott: What did I rate this?
I give this a 3 overall and a 3 for Drama/Thriller. I suspended my reality for 95 minutes and enjoyed the film.
Take a date and spend $23 to see this movie and get a drink and popcorn too.
