The Number 23 (2007) - Double the Virginia Madsen!

The Number 23, what should and could have been a great film from 2007. It’s a thriller directed by Joel Schumacher, and it has Jim Carrey as the main driver of the film. Obviously Virginia Madsen is also a star or we wouldn’t be here. And, parts of this film might be the ‘darkest’ we’ve seen her get on camera.

Now, something I’ve learnt from life, and from Batman and Robin, is that Joel and Jim should probably never have worked together. I’ve got time for the both of them on their own, but together? The jury might still be out.

The Number 23 introduces us to Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey), he works in Pest Control. Just as he’s about to knock off for the day he gets a last minute call about a dog on the loose. He arrives to catch the dog but it bites him and gives him the slip.

All of this makes him late to meet his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen). He finds her waiting inside a bookstore. She’s been passing the time browsing and has found a book she’s been thumbing through and thinks he should read it. He shrugs it off but agrees.
As Walter (eventually) starts to read the book he begins to notice a lot of similar traits between himself and the main character, a Detective who we only know as Fingerling. Where they grew up, dogs names and all of that kind of stuff. Weird, very weird, but something Agatha passes off as coincidence…

Eventually the novel starts to detail Fingerlings obsession with the number 23. He can see it everywhere. Names, birthdays and colours can all be broken down to the core component of 23.

Slowly but surely Walter begins to notice the 23 thing prominent in his life as well until he becomes as obsessed with it as Fingerling.

This leads to one thing or another, but mostly, well, nonsense.

I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t seen it. Even though I’ve just probably put you off it. Truth be told, I’ve seen this film more than a couple of times and relatively enjoyed it. I don’t *hate* the film, far from it. I much prefer Jim Carrey in this kind of role, I never understood the hate The Cable Guy got on release.
If I do hate something about The Number 23, it’s that it’s a wasted opportunity for an actually good film. I don’t know what they could have changed about this film to make it work better. It’s like they took a really interesting intelligent concept and beat it to death until every conceivable angle had bent, broken and ruined beyond any recognition. There are just too many points where the story falls down if you give it a little thought.

I mean, taking an early event – Why couldn’t it have been Fingerling that found the book? Why his wife? Making it his wife that found the book instantly puts the film into the “nah, that wouldn’t happen” category. Too much coincidence. However, if he’d have found the book we could have believed he was drawn to it. Agatha could still have read it first, told him to read it, everything.

And the ending! – The pulled punches I suspected earlier surely were all pulled in the final round. We’re watching a man go dark, let him go dark goddamnit.

For a film that tries to be so clever, it’s so dumb at times. Kind of like they tried to make it a film people would talk about for years, but missed the whole point of why people talk about films for years. I imagine that somewhere along the line, they pulled more than a couple of punches when it came to getting this onto screen and in front of people.

And, if all of that isn’t bad enough, you can read up online about how “23” affected the film and all that stuff, but personally, I don’t believe a word of any of it – And I love this kind of thing, normally.

Virginia Madsen pulls her weight here as well, I won’t go into specifics but it’s double duty as Agatha in Walters life and the sexy alluring Fabrzia in Fingerlings. But, it’s wasted. Again. Actually, no, to be fair – It’s not really wasted. Her work (and that of Jim Carrey) here helps bring the movie up a few notches. It’s just a shame the movie doesn’t back her up.
And, yet, despite all of that I’d still watch it again.

The tale it tells is serviceable, just don’t put a lot of thought into it – I did and do enjoy watching the story fold out and it has some half decent moments in it. There are some twists and turns, which I’m pretty sure aren’t going to be a shock to most of you but, if they are then that’s a bonus.

Reading the reviews on a few places it seems to be a pretty divisive film, some rate it highly, most put it in the middle like me it seems and obviously this is the Internet so there is some outright hate for it as well.

I guess this one to make your own mind up about.

Availability:

Good. Copies on DVD in most regions freely available and on Blu Ray as well.

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