"THE NUMBER 23" WON'T BE IN MY TOP TEN
Written: Feb 23 '07 (Updated Feb 24 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Decent acting, music
Cons: Weak, dull script
The Bottom Line: It may have been me, but I wanted to see a better film than I saw.
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| mike.holmes's Full Review: The Number 23 |
I was really excited about this film when I saw the trailers for it. For one thing, I'm a big fan of Jim Carrey and believe that he is one of the most underrated actors around. I thought that he was great in "The Truman Show", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Man on the Moon" but nary a single Oscar nomination came forth for him. While there are serious moments in those films, this appeared to be one of Carey's pure "dramatic" vehicles.
Alas, although he does a good job here, I don't think this film will win him any awards either.
THE PLOT
Walter Sparrow (Carrey) is a gentle sort of animal control officer who has a bad run-in with a vicious dog in the opening scenes. He chases the dog to a graveyard where the animal disappears. This chase causes Sparrow to be late to his own birthday party. When he catches up with his wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen-"Sideways", "The Astronaut Farmer"), she hands him a book entitled "The Number 23". She's already read it and thinks he'll enjoy it.
As Sparrow reads the book, he realizes certain similarities to his own life. The main character of the book, Detective Fingerling (also portrayed by Carrey) is obsessed with "23" which leads to some violent scenes with Fingerling's girlfriend "Fabrizia" (also Madsen with a black wig). The further in the book that Sparrow reads, the more obsessed he becomes with both the story and the number 23. Events escalate to the point of danger for several of the characters. That's about all I can say without spoiling the story.
PROS AND CONS CONCERNING THE MOVIE
While I felt that Carrey does a good job in the film, I wouldn't say that it was one of his best performances. I don't blame that solely on him as I think the script is the weakest element of this film. After a while, I became rather bored with all of the ways the number 23 was important to Sparrow.
Other than Carrey and Madsen, there was little room for anyone else in the film. The Sparrow's son, Robin, portrayed by Logan Lerman ("Hoot", "The Butterfly Effect" does an excellent job of acting in a rather limited role. Danny Huston ("21 Grams", "The Constant Gardner") also is effective in the dual roles of Professor Isaac French and Dr. Miles Phoenix. There are no other significant roles in the film.
Director Joel Schumacher ("Phone Booth", "A Time to Kill" and "St. Elmo's Fire") has made several excellent films but has always fallen just short of truly great. His main problem here, for me, was his choice of screenwriter. First time screenwriter Fernley Phillips simple did not keep my interest in the film. I found some of the movie to be repetitious and predictable.
The score by Harry Gregson-Williams was one of the stronger aspects of the movie as it provided the proper feeling for the scare times.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While the film is decent, it failed to deliver the kind of acting that I wanted to see from Jim Carrey. Again, I don't blame him for that entirely but I wanted to see more.
Three stars.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Die-hard Fans Only
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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Epinions.com ID:
mike.holmes
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 in Music, Movies, Books |
 - Top 500 |
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Member: Mike Holmes
Location: Odessa, Texas
Reviews written: 1259
Trusted by: 360 members
About Me:
TO HONOR TED KENNEDY, CONGRESS SHOULD PASS A MEANINGFUL HEALTH CARE BILL
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