Laughably acted and about as scary as Britney Spears in a hair salon.
The Number 23 (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:184
Fresh:15
Rotten:169
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: Jim Carrey has been sharp in a number of non-comedic roles, but this lurid, overheated, and self-serious potboiler is not one of them. The Number 23 is clumsy, unengaging, and mostly confusing.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for violence, disturbing images, sexuality and language
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Mystery, Occult, Thriller, Murder, Theatrical Release, Fantasy Worlds
Theatrical Release:23-02-2007
Synopsis: In Joel Schumacher's psychological thriller THE NUMBER 23, Jim Carrey takes on another dramatic role. Carrey's character is similar to his roles in THE TRUMAN SHOW and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE... In Joel Schumacher's psychological thriller THE NUMBER 23, Jim Carrey takes on another dramatic role. Carrey's character is similar to his roles in THE TRUMAN SHOW and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND: he portrays an average man thrust into quite extraordinary situations after a series of strange events cause him to question everything he's ever taken for granted. On his birthday, Walter Sparrow is given a mysterious and tattered book called THE NUMBER 23 by his loving wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen). As Walter reads the book, he quickly notices its alarming similarities to his own life. Rather than stop reading, he continues, unknowingly inviting the book to take over his life. The deeper Walter gets into the plot, the more he sees himself in its protagonist, Fingerling, whom we see through highly stylized sequences in which Carrey appears as the seedy detective character. Madsen is also present in these scenes, cast as Fingerling's pain-loving girlfriend Fabrizia. As Fingerling and Fabrizia's love affair inches towards its fiery conclusion, we learn the role the number 23 has played in their story and will play in Walter's future if he cannot keep his growing obsession with it at bay. While Carrey and Madsen are adept at playing a man gone mad and a headstrong wife in crisis, they are most fascinating as their dark counterparts, and Schumacher succeeds in creating a truly intoxicating noirish underworld of sex and death through those sequences. [More]
Starring: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston
Starring: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Rhona Mitra
Director: Joel Schumacher
Director: Joel Schumacher
Screenwriter: Fernley Phillips
Producer: Tripp Vinson, Beau Flynn
Studio: New Line Cinema
Reviews for The Number 23
The titular novel is written by an anonymous scribe who goes by the moniker Topsy Kretts (Get it? Like “Top Secrets”? Yeah, I didn’t laugh either.)
...drops all kinds of ridiculous into the story line, all of which could have been forgiven if they weren't so blatantly swept under the rug...
The Number 23 is the movie equivalent of a parlor trick. It's cool to see and it can pleasantly catch you off guard, but there's ultimately not much to it beyond its own sense of trickery.
Every plotline [is] explained like the Carver's plan in nip/tuck, but it's all so contained. If the number is really so significant, as I understand it is in some intellectual circles, why not go there?
There are 23 letters in 'the twist ending is idiotic.' And in 'Joel Schumacher can bite me.' And in 'go to another movie tonight.'
[The film] squanders a promising premise and a lot of cool special effects on a story that gets more ridiculous and less involving with each passing minute.
Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times. Charles Manson was born Nov. 12 (11 + 12 = 23). The Mayans believed the world would end on Dec. 23, 2012 (20 + 1 + 2 = 23). My brother stole my pogo stick when I was 23 and broke it into 23 pieces.
The author's obsession with the number 23 becomes Walter's, and we're treated to a lot of examples of numbers that add up to 23, which means a lot of scenes in which people say things like, 'What's 14 plus 9? 23!' and look haunted.
Carrey owns this movie. He's in virtually every scene, and there's no taking one's eyes from him.
Jim Carrey makes for an unlikely but completely effective lead choice. He brings a nice touch of comic irony to his otherwise serious role, impressively handling a wide range of emotions as an ordinary Joe caught in an extraordinary web.
If you kept at it, you could probably think of 23 other similar movies you'd rather be watching.
What kills 23 are any number of bad choices that render the movie tone-deaf, sometimes hilariously so.
That I got so much enjoyment from the movie's flamboyant style made the inanity of the plot all the more irritating.
Pages turn, knives plunge, rain patters and the camera rarely holds steady. No amount of quick cuts and twitchy shots, however, can compensate for the lack of narrative momentum.
The main test of a twisty thriller is, would you watch it again? You won't, because the solution turns out to be both uncomplicated and cliché.
There are more than 23 reasons why Joel Schumacher's The Number 23 is not very good; but in keeping with the theme, I'll stick to the titular sum:
Though students of formulaic screenwriting may figure this mystery out long before Walter does, there won't be much satisfaction in it because it is totally preposterous.
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