The Number 23


2007 mystery thriller

Rating: 8/20

Plot: A dogcatcher becomes obsessed with the number 23 after finding a book that seems to be based on his life.

I can't believe this is from the director who brought us D.C. Cab.

After being intrigued by Jim Carrey in that Jim and Andy documentary, I thought I'd give a Carrey movie I've never seen a spin. I can't remember why I ignored this one right around the time I started this blog. I have an interest in arithmomania, and the premise of this one does seem kind of interesting on paper. However, I can't think of a worse performance that I've seen from a big-name acting, one who made (of course) 23 million dollars for this movie. Carrey's performance is wildly uneven, ranging from way too goofy to preposterously serious. He sort of plays two roles, the guy reading the book and slowly losing his mind and the detective character in the book, and he doesn't do either one of them very well at all. He also narrates--very poorly--and reads from the book like it's the most serious acting that has ever been done on film before. It's really embarrassing.

The twists and turns in this one work as twists and turns mostly because they don't make much sense. Things get very dark, and then they get darker, but you never really take anything seriously because the director of Batman and Robin made this and you expect the main character to bend over and start performing a ventriloquist act with his ass at any moment.

Right at the beginning, Carrey starts making a weird noise at a dog because he's "bored." I should have taken that for a bad sign right there. I didn't, watched this entire ugly movie, and am thinking about writing a letter to Joel Schumacher and demanding he pay me two dollars even though I didn't pay anything to see this movie. He owes me though.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

This movie was a joke. Yes, the premise is intriguing, but the performances and storytelling are freaking laughable. Jim Carrey is so full of himself, and this movie proves that he can't handle gritty/hard drama. He's not worth as much as he thinks he is.

Shane said...

Well, it's not a good joke!

Gritty drama? No, probably not. But he's fine in lighter dramas--Eternal Sunshine, Truman Show.

Unknown said...

I don't give him much credit for Eternal Sunshine. It's a masterpiece. The writing/directing/editing...the entire cast was an amazing support. I mean, I'm glad he didn't mess it up, but how could you? Truman Show I still think was a comedy. It had touching moments, but so did Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

Shane said...

Hmm...I thought he was really good in Eternal Sunshine, but I'm not sure I could say that anything would have been lost if it was somebody else in his role.

Truman Show--a comedy? It had comedic elements, but the drama overshadowed them, no? Honey I Shrunk the Kids doesn't quite have the same underlying existentialism.

Man, you really hate Jim Carrey!