The Number 23

The Number 23 1/2*

Directed by Joel Schumacher
Written by Fernley Phillips

Starring:
Jim Carrey as Walter Sparrow/Fingerling
Virginia Madsen as Agatha Sparrow/Fabrizia
Logan Lerman as Robin Sparrow
Danny Huston as Isaac French/Dr. Miles Phoenix
Lynn Collins as Suicide Blonde/Mrs. Dobkins/Young Fingerling's Mother

95 Minutes(Rated R for violence, disturbing images, sexuality and language).
-----------------------------------
Whatever happened to Jim Carrey? There was a time when Carrey was one of the biggest actors around-and he proved that he could do the silly facial reactions as well as brilliant drama. But his last two films, this and "Fun with Dick and Jane" spanned a strong comedy based film and a strong drama based film, and both of them were complete duds. It's come to the point where I am wondering what he is thinking. And his future resume isn't filled up with other projects. If he is going to only do the occasional movie, then he has to do one that is actually worth the time to watch and make. I suppose I could have been worried about this project right after seeing the director: Joel Schumacher. Schumacher has been around for an eternity, and he only has two or three films that are even worth the effort. After singlehandingly killing the first "Batman" franchise, and somehow convincing Anthony Hopkins to team up with Chris Rock, it was no wonder that he managed to get Jim Carrey to appear in this, reciting horrible dialogue, and being involved in a plot that could have been intriguing, but becomes boring, somewhat impossible, and then throwing on a twist that is probably included in a book called "Screenwriting 101."

In "The Number 23", Carrey plays Walter Sparrow, and today is his birthday. February 3rd. Or 2/3. Walter is a dog catcher, and he parks his truck in front of his job until he is called. On this day he is called a minute before he is supposed to punch out, mainly because his boss has a mean streak with him after he refused to sleep with her at a company Christmas party two months earlier. Carrey tries to catch the dog, which bites him an escapes, making him late to pick up his wife. His wife,Agatha, while waiting, walked into a used book store, and came across a book called "The Number 23," written by Topsy Kretts. She buys the book for Walter who reluctantly reads it. While reading it he begins to find parallels to his own life. The book is about a detective named Fingerling, who got the name after reading a children's book called "Fingerling at the Zoo." Walter has that book in his attic from when he was young. The book then gets more and more violent, scaring Walter who begins to have dreams of him killing his wife just like the character in the book. He then begins to see connections to the number 23 everywhere-in personal life and in history. His birthday, 2/3, his drivers license, social security number, everything adds to 23. The day of the sinking of the Titanic, the fact that Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8:15(8+15=23), as well as facts about math and the human chromosome count-all 23. This number begins to control Walter, driving him to obsession and eventual madness, making him a danger to himself and his family.

It is an intriguing plot, and some of the connections to the number 23 are kind of neat. I didn't know that this number is an actual real life obsession that some people are really serious about. But this interesting concept was turned into a script that is silly and doesn't make much sense from the get go. We start off with this dog, which the Walter character claims is extremely important in what happened. It makes sense-the dog bit him, and then ran away making Walter late for meeting his wife starting the whole chain of events-but the dog's presence in moments that are also imperative to the plot do not add to anything, and is more filler or just the script trying to act more mysterious than it really is. And in addition, after the lame plot is explained in painfully strong detail for twenty minutes, the original foundation for how the number 23 entered Walter's life is never explained. The script expects us to just accept the lack of any beginning, but it is a gaping hole that cannot be filled. So many of the lines were laughable, and I'm surprised that the actors were able to say them with a straight face("No officer, it's ok. I looked up every 23rd word on every 23rd page" was my personal favorite) as well as the name of Walter and Agatha's son-Robin Sparrow. Get it? Robin Sparrow. Because they are both types of birds. Ha. . . From time to time there are little background connections to 23-for example Walter wakes up one night at 11:12, 11+12 is 23, but those little details are more directing tricks as opposed to things that were in the script. And I'll admit that whenever a number, or a set of something appeared on the screen I would try to figure out in my head how they added to 23-and even though I didn't catch all of them I'm sure they did.

Carrey's acting is half good and half a joke, and it's when he playing Walter where he is somewhat believable. When he is playing Walter he drives into obsession well, trying to create a three dimensional character out of a paper thin script concoction. When he is playing the detective Fingerling in the book portions of the film, he has the visual appearance of Ace Ventura, and the voice of The Mask. Those scenes were also ridiculous, trying to show a film noir type of tale with a really low budget. This is not "The Black Dahlia" which probably had a lot of money to spare, but more of a low budget project that was probably saved by Carrey's presence. Virginia Madsen is appearing here for the second time in the last week, and both performances do not exactly highlight her Oscar nomination(and what should have been her win) two years ago. Little bits from Danny Huston are welcome I suppose, but there is just something about this that annoys me. Whenever he pops up somewhere I don't know if I should be happy or angered. "The Number 23" is a silly thriller, and one that seems to think that the audience has an IQ of 23. By the end I was happy to jump out of my seat and get out of the theatre. I have always enjoyed Carrey's dramatic turns, but "Eternal Sunshine" or "The Majestic" this is not. Luckily we have a new David Fincher flick next week, a master of the thriller. Maybe in his hands the awful script for "The Number 23" could have been somewhat decent, though I highly doubt that would be even possible.