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On his birthday—February 3—dogcatcher Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) works late. It’s not a big deal, really, but it means that he’s late in picking up his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen) from work. She wanders next door to a used bookstore, where she finds a strange book called The Number 23, which she buys for Walter.
The book is narrated by a man who calls himself Fingerling (also played by Carrey). While working as a detective, Fingerling meets the Suicide Blonde (Lynn Collins), who tells him all about the number 23—a number that’s plagued her throughout her entire life. She’s become obsessed with the number—and with its constant occurrences in her life. It’s driven her over the edge—and it’s even driven her to murder (and, eventually, to suicide). Fingerling begins to look around and realize that he, too, is surrounded by the number. And as he becomes more and more obsessed, so does Walter. As he reads, Walter finds all kinds of similarities between the book and his own life—and he begins to wonder if it was written about him. The problem, however, is the murder at the end of the book—the one that hasn’t happened yet. So as Walter’s obsession and paranoia continue to grow, Agatha and their son, Robin (Logan Lerman), try to help him solve the mystery of the book and its author—so they can prevent the murder that Walter fears he’s destined to commit.
From the first time I saw the trailer for The Number 23, I was intrigued. I was a little skeptical about the whole Jim Carrey thing, but I thought the story had great potential to be brilliant—to keep me up at night, seriously creeped out by this mysterious number. As it turns out, with Carrey, there was nothing to worry about. The funnyman is surprisingly good in this dark role. Though the occasional hint of The Old Carrey peeks through every once in a while, his performance is even shocking. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that he’s that guy from Dumb and Dumber.
The story, however, isn’t as brilliant as I’d hoped. Though director Joel Schumacher does an excellent job of making the film look creepy, the story spoils all his hard work. Yes, it’s intriguing—but it’s not developed enough to make it really believable. No matter how hard I tried to get caught up in it, I couldn’t help but think, Come on—it’s just a number. If there had been a little more background about the mystical beliefs about the number 23, perhaps it would have given the story more depth. But, instead, it’s just creative math—just add or divide or subtract or multiply, and eventually you’ll find a 2 and a 3 in there somewhere. Coincidence? Yeah, it probably is.
It’s too bad, too—because the film’s dizzying pace allows viewers to feel Walter’s insanity building—and the eerie Fingerling scenes set the perfect tone. Even the revelations toward the film’s end make for a great twist. But the fear and suspense aren’t there—unless, of course, you have a debilitating fear of math problems.
