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Review: The Number 23 (2007) ★½

<p><i>The Number 23<&sol;i> wants very badly to be a captivating neo-noir crime drama about the power of obsession and paranoia&period; It draws some inspiration from films such as Darren Aronofsky’s <i>Pi <&sol;i>&lpar;1998&rpar; and Christopher Nolan’s <i>Memento<&sol;i> &lpar;2000&rpar;&comma; but sadly director Joel Schumacher lacks the subtlety of style and vision necessary to bring such a story to life&period; Rather than being a thoughtful&comma; frightening tale concerning the darker side of the human mind&comma; it plays out like a cheap thriller with little to no underlying substance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jim Carrey plays Walter Sparrow&comma; a dog-catcher for Animal Control&period; He is married to Agatha &lpar;Virginia Madsen&rpar;&comma; and they live together with their son&comma; Robin &lpar;Logan Lerman&rpar;&period; By pure chance &lpar;or perhaps by dark forces unknown&rpar;&comma; Agatha passes by a local bookstore and sees a book entitled &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Number 23” by Topsy Kretts&period; She decides to purchase it and&comma; after reading it&comma; recommends the book to Walter&period; Walter begins reading the story&comma; which recounts a detective and his increasing paranoia regarding the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;23 enigma&comma;” which is a real conspiracy theory in which all &lpar;or most&rpar; events and people are somehow connected to the number 23&comma; or to numbers related to 23&period; Walter quickly sees similarities between himself and the character in the book&comma; and starts seeing instances of the number 23 everywhere he goes&period; Eventually&comma; the same obsession that the character in the book suffers from overtakes Walter&comma; and his family worries about his sanity as he becomes increasingly isolated and paranoid&period; Eventually&comma; Walter and his family attempt to find the author of the book&comma; in the hopes that they can uncover the mystery behind the number 23&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I will gladly admit that <i>The Number 23<&sol;i> intrigued me when I first saw the trailer back in 2007&comma; but after seeing nothing but negative reviews&comma; I decided it wasn’t worth my time&period; More recently&comma; it showed up in my Netflix queue and I decided to take the plunge and watch it&comma; because&comma; despite knowing that it would probably not meet my expectations&comma; I was still intrigued by the premise&period; I find most films that focus on chronically obsessive or paranoid protagonists to be fascinating&comma; and so I was more than willing to go into <i>The Number 23<&sol;i> with an open mind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;978" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-978" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-978 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;IMG&lowbar;0163-300x125&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"250" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-978" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The sequences involving the detective are generally blurry and washed-out&comma; but this technique doesn&&num;8217&semi;t fit well with the rest of the film &lpar;The Number 23&comma; 2007&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; by the time the story gets interesting&comma; the cracks have already begun to show&period; Jim Carrey narrates the detective&&num;8217&semi;s story&comma; attempting to fake a raspy&comma; no-nonsense detective voice that is laughably bad&period; Even though Carrey has proven himself capable of taking on more serious roles time and time again &lpar;<i>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind&comma; The Truman Show&comma; The Majestic<&sol;i>&rpar;&comma; his performance is completely flat in this one&period; Walter’s character requires an actor who can transition from a seemingly normal&comma; Everyman into a deeply disturbed and paranoid individual&period; Theoretically&comma; Carrey should have been able to do this&comma; but&comma; for one reason or another &lpar;perhaps the awful script&rpar;&comma; he is completely two-dimensional in <i>The Number 23<&sol;i>&period; None of the other performances are even worth mentioning&comma; as they were either cringe-worthy or completely forgettable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Part of the problem with <i>The Number 23<&sol;i> is that it lacks a clear direction&period; It borrows elements from various genres&comma; so much so that it lacks a clear tone&period; At different moments in the film&comma; it manages to be noir mystery&comma; psychological thriller&comma; dark fantasy&comma; generic horror&comma; and even inadvertent comedy&period; On top of having a confusing&comma; patchwork tone&comma; it isn’t able to excel as part of any one of these genres&period; The fantasy elements are never fully explained&comma; the noir detective story is poorly executed and doesn’t match the tone of the rest of the film&comma; and the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;horror” is about as boring and ineffective as possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It doesn’t help that <i>The Number 23<&sol;i> is so focused on the concept of coincidence&period; Much of the plot relies on scenarios and chance meetings that are difficult to believe&comma; even within the story’s vaguely surreal framework&period; So as we are witnessing events that are not very plausible&comma; we are made to contemplate the role that coincidence and plausibility play in life&comma; making the film’s contrivances that much more obvious&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ultimately&comma; <i>The Number 23<&sol;i> relies far too much on the intrigue of real-life conspiracy theories to carry the plot&comma; and while this works for about the first 20 minutes of the film&comma; it cannot make up for the uneven tone&comma; subpar performances&comma; banal writing&comma; and implausible story&period; Even if you were to ignore the story&comma; and simply look at its technical accomplishments&comma; they are few and far between&period; The filmmakers take no chances with the photography&comma; relying on uninteresting staging and cinematography to tell the story as efficiently and blandly as possible&period; The sequences recounting the detective&&num;8217&semi;s story are given a blurry filter to make them feel more &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;noir&comma;” but it just makes these parts look cheap and lazy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you happen to be interested in the 23 enigma&comma; then you might find <i>The Number 23<&sol;i> worthwhile&comma; otherwise you would be better served to look elsewhere&period; And even if you’re a fan of Jim Carrey’s more serious work&comma; there are far more entertaining and thoughtful films out there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>The Number 23<&sol;i> is available to rent or purchase via Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B000YHIJUC&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B000YHIJUC&amp&semi;linkId&equals;cded2b67bda2bd1c219659693ee60f91">here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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