MOVIE REVIEW: The 23 styles in ‘The Number 23’ end up hurting the film
Jim Carrey (“Fun With Dick and Jane”) isn’t just a silly comedy man anymore. He can be creepy too.
Despite Carrey’s passionate energy in his portrayal of Walter, a small-town dog catcher who sinks into obsession, there are numerous moments where he fails to connect with his dialogue. What’s the word I’m looking for? Clunky.
Walter receives a book called “The Number 23” and soon realizes that the life of its protagonist is startlingly similar to his own. His paranoia engulfs him to the point of nightmares, knife-clutching and murder. Spooky.
As Walter realizes the power of 23, we too are sucked into the belief of its encompassing control. The number 23 is, in fact, a number that is rampant among many real-life truths. (Are you nervous yet? Well…maybe give it some time.) Walter’s obsession slowly begins to endanger his family, most of all, his lovely wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen, “Firewall”). And what’s the word I’m looking for to describe Madsen’s performance? Blah.
Directed by the dramatic and violence-loving Joel Schumacher (“The Phantom of the Opera”), “The Number 23” starts off with a well-crafted story but then goes way off into crazy land after trying to include too many dizzying twists. (But I guess there’s nowhere else to go when insanity is such a big chunk of the subject matter.)
What starts off as intriguing suspense suddenly turns into mysterious film noir and then into emotional family drama. I was left thinking, “What’s the deal with so many different film styles being mixed together?”
Such ambitious and unrealistic mixtures may work in crazy land, but they don’t work in this film.
Casey T. Allen is the Utah Statesman film critic. Comments on his
reviews can be sent to him
at caseyal@cc.usu.edu.