Directed by:
Joel SchumacherScreenplay:
Fernley PhillipsCinematography:
Matthew LibatiqueComposer:
Harry Gregson-WilliamsCast:
Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Rhona Mitra, Mark Pellegrino, Ed Lauter, Troy Kotsur, Patricia Belcher, Tara Karsian (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Spiraling into a dark obsession with the number 23, Walter Sparrow twists his once idyllic life into an inferno of psychological torture that could possibly lead to his death as well as the deaths of his loved ones. Spurred on by a mysterious novel, The Number 23, that he doesn't dare put down, Walter is forced to unlock the secrets of his past before he can continue his future with his wife, Agatha, and teenage son, Robin. The novel, given to Walter by Agatha as a birthday gift, depicts a chilling murder mystery that seems to mirror Walter's life in dark and uncontrollable ways. The life of the book's main character, a brooding detective named Fingerling, is filled with moments that echo Walter's own history. As the world of the book starts to come alive, Walter becomes infected by the most frightening and evocative part of it: Fingerling's obsession with the hidden power of the number 23. This obsession permeates the book and begins to control Walter. He sees the number everywhere in his own life and becomes convinced that he is damned to commit the same horrific crime as Fingerling--murder. Nightmarish fantasies come to haunt Walter, ones that portend terrible fates for his wife as well as family friend Isaac French, placing him on a desperate quest to understand the mysteries of the book. If he can unlock the power behind the number 23, he may be able to change his future. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (6)
If you have a high-quality script, actors, and director, you can achieve a masterpiece in the mysterious drama genre, just like Fight Club was in its time. However, if you have a weak script, not even a diligent director and a star-studded cast can save it. For Jim Carrey, the film represented an exceptional opportunity to play a truly dark and complicated character that had never appeared in his career before. In fact, Jim never went beyond the grotesque character of Uncle Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events. However, all his energy goes to waste because his paranoid character simply cannot develop properly in the unfortunate and predictable script. Perhaps the best difference between a top-notch film and a mediocre one is characterized by the final scene in Fight Club when all certainties of the existing world collapse and the anti-hero of the story knows that he is personally responsible for it. In The Number 23, you get to see an overly moralistic scene that undermines the previous plot to the point of absurdity. Overall impression: 35%.
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Between 11 pm of 16 July and 23 July I peed 23 times. Now, tell me, isn’t that suspicious? It’s shocking!!! Now, seriously. Does Jim Carrey read the scripts before singing the contracts? Has Joel Schumacher gone definitely mad? He is, however, thanks to the occasionally nice visuals, innocent in this, I think. It's just that the script is a terrible piece of crap. It's not so much the obsession with the number (I know a few people around me with obsessive disorder, so I know what hell is like) and the basic premise is not bad at all. But the way it's narrated, drawn out and acted (Carrey's tattoos are terrible, but otherwise he's probably the worst I've seen), it's an ordeal. The most stupid film of (not only) this year. This film, ladies and gentlemen, despite the strong competition from LaBute's The Wicker Man, is a sure winner of the upcoming Golden Raspberries! PS: Jim Carrey should pray the Lord's Prayer 23 times to be pardoned by the movie god and his fortune.
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A fairly decently made piece of crap with a dreadful script. Jim Carrey is utterly unsuited for this genre and the screenwriter literally crammed the film with absurd and ridiculous bullshit. A complete waste of time and a huge misstep in Carrey's career.
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It starts promisingly. I can’t deny that to begin with the topic seems interesting and the movie has some atmosphere. But in the second half, the screenplay goes haywire and all the atmosphere goes down the drain. Surprisingly this time it isn’t so much the fault of Schumacher, who tries his very best and manages to stuff some visual idea or atmosphere into a few scenes - it’s the screenplay. Which is a shame because the topic could doubtlessly have made a good foundation for a movie, because the point it’s trying to get across really isn’t that dumb. It’s just very badly presented here. The result is a mediocre thriller that video rental stores are full of. Another in a row of uninspiring movies from Joel Schumacher’s rather unstable filmography.
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Joel Schumacher is a devil. He carves out a spectacular visual with dynamic editing, squeezing the atmosphere to dizzying heights and enjoying the amazingly stylized noir storyline in every second. After all, he has no other choice. The story itself is at first nothing more than a weaker version of any paranoid spectacle, but once the main hero reaches the end of the twenty-second chapter, the script shifts into top gear and suddenly swerves off the comfortable highway over the steepest cliff. Everything merges into unwatchable chaos, where scenes barely connect, Jim Carrey confusedly chases numerological assumptions, and a reveal that is not exactly stupid but desperately predictable buries everything in the coat of a strongly below-average film suitable for only a single viewing.
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This film initially delights with well-written characters and an interesting and concise plot as the mundane trapping service member starts to get to know the hard-boiled detective in the book with the femme fatale in his bed, and with a pretty interesting twisted journey, which leads us to the finale, where everything jams, rattles, overheats, catches fire, explodes, sets the whole house and the orphanage nearby on fire, and ends in smoldering ruins. So maybe next time.
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