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THE NUMBER 23 Send This Review to a Friend
Comedians sometimes say that numbers can be funny, and with a good comedian, merely saying a number makes it funny, as George Burns proved to me during an interview. Would that the number in this film were funny, as laughs are desperately needed in what is already among the worst films of the year. Not intended for comedy but seemingly for mystery and psychological horror, “The Number 23,” starring Jim Carrey and directed by Joel Schumacher from a screenplay by Fernley Phillips, is excruciating to sit through.
Carrey plays Walter, a dog catcher in this dog of a movie, as well as the detective in a novel murder mystery he is reading. The detective becomes obsessed with the number 23 and its supposed powers, and so does Walter, who becomes overwhelmed and convinced that he will become a murderer. The film is saturated with combinations involving the supposedly ominous and fateful number, and in Walter’s world the number is everywhere.
Virgina Madsen as his wife, Agatha, tries to calm him even while she is in danger from Walter’s around-the-bend mind. There isn’t an ounce of wit in all of this, just gibberish, and the film tries one’s patience. No matter how many ways in which 23 can be cited or manipulated, or how intricate the screenplay tries to become, “The Number 23” adds up to zero. A New Line Cinema release.
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