The Number 23 Movie Review Analysis and Commentary
July 22, 2007
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The movie begins with Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) celebrating his birthday. His wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen) stumbles across a book by an unheard of author named Topsy Kretts. As Walter begins to read the book, he notices increasing similarities between his life and that of main character Detective Fingerling. Gradually he becomes consumed by the number 23 and begins to obsess over what it means and why it seemingly appears in ever aspect of his day to day life. His Birthday, his national insurance number and the date he and his wife met all add up to the number 23 - Spooky coincidence or something more sinister? This is just the beginning of what soon becomes a twisted and disturbing journey into paranoia and the effects of trauma on the human mind.
To be completely honest, it was my husband who wanted to watch this movie more than me. I had heard the bad things about it and am not a huge fan of Jim Carrey in general so it wasn’t up there on my list of ‘must watch’ films as such. I must admit though, as odd as it still is for me to see Jim Carrey in any other role than ‘Ace Ventura’ this film had me hooked after the first 10 minutes or so. I loved the element of paranoia the movie creates, the tension and the way it resembles a seedy detective movie in places was brilliant.
Carrey does a fantastic job of playing both Walter Sparrow and Detective Fingerling, I found it really interesting to watch him shift from one to the other and remain captivating as both. You may remember Virginia Madsen from the horror classic ‘Candyman’ and it is great to see her back on top form in this movie as she tackles two very different roles, that of Walters straight laced wife Agatha and Fingerlings love interest Fabrizia whose interest in dark and dangerous sex gives the movie a more serious edge throughout.
I’m glad I took the time to watch this movie, as I was genuinely pleasantly surprised at how good it actually was. With more paranoia and conspiracy theories than an episode of X Files, an interesting storyline and fantastic use of the classic ‘who dunnit’ element ‘The Number 23′ was an interesting and engaging film that held my attention from start to finish.
Let me know what you thought of The Number 23 … did Jim Carrey’s serious performance do it for you, or leave you wishing he’d stick to the comedy roles he’s best known for?
Sounds excellent - I wouldn’t normally watch something with Jim Carey in, but having read this will definitely be seeing this one!
Crazy, this is one of the first positive reviews I’ve read on the Number 23. Check out: It scored an 8% on Rotten Tomatoes and was put in their list of worst 100 movies of all time. Now I do like movies on occasion that the critics HATED, but I’m wondering why do you think all the critics hated it so much?
I do generally tend to find that what I think of movies goes against the general thoughts of most critics out there. I think that each movie speaks to different people in different ways and I personally never take a critics advice before going to see a movie, I take on board what they say but wouldn’t let that stop me from actually seeing a film and drawing my own conclusions. I think you’ll find that what has put alot of people off is Jim Carrey being the main star, even I admit it’s ODD to see him playing this type of role as he’s typically cast in comedies and ’silly’ films but I actually slowly began to forget I was watching Jim Carrey as I lost myself in this movie and cant help but wonder what the reviews would have been like had his role been cast to a more renowned actor. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hailing it as one of the best films ever or even saying you MUST watch this film, but as thrillers go I have definately seen worse and think that critics have been overly harsh on this movie in general.
I saw this film advertsied a while ago and was intrigued but now I really need to see it after read this review!
Well, I do think Jim Carrey is a fantastic serious actor and his performance is very good in this movie, has with everyone elses.
However I think this movie is very disjointed, it didn’t flow and left me feeling very cold, in fact they are the only feelings I have about this movie now,Jim Carreys performance and the feeling of coldness along with the feeling of being bored.Not a good feeling to have about a movie.