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The
psychological thriller The Number 23 stars Jim Carrey as a man whose
life unravels after he comes into contact with an obscure book titled
The Number 23. As he reads the book, he becomes increasingly convinced
that it is based on his own life. His obsession with the number 23
starts to consume him, and he begins to realize the book forecasts far
graver consequences for his life than he could have ever imagined. |
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I used to
think Joel Schumacher was a junk filmmaker after what he did to the
Batman franchise. Not quite at the level of Ewe Boll, but not high on my
list. And then I looked at his IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base –
www.imdb.com) page and noticed that there are quite a few films that
he has done that I enjoy including Lost Boys, Flatliners, Falling Down
and even Phantom Of The Opera. So I will forgive him for nipplefying
Batman. That being said, I was highly impressed with The Number 23. It's
almost a throwback to the suspense thrillers like some of those
mentioned above.
Joel
Schumacher has created a dark, suspenseful thriller which isn't as
supernatural as the trailers would lead you to believe. If you want
complete honesty, I would call this a psychological thriller with
elements of the supernatural. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this
movie. It had a good story that kept you guessing, some good camera
tricks such as a scene at the beginning when Walter (Carrey) starts to
read the book that his wife buys him and is the catalyst for the whole
story. The camera is continuously moving forward through each scene like
chapters in the book. For some reason it just caught my eye. In
actuality almost all of the “book” scenes had a noirish, dream like
quality to them that really separated the fiction from Walter's real
life developments.
Jim Carrey
turns in a great performance here. One of his rare turns in a serious
role, he plays obsessive well enough to be, well, obsessed by the number
23. He is in a downward spiral that will only end when he learns the
truth and plays it accordingly. Virginia Madsen, who seems to have been
a busy little beaver lately with this and
The Astronaut Farmer being
released on the same day, plays another supportive mother/wife who just
wants to protect her family. Their son Robin, played by Logan Lerman is
one of the semi-small touches that makes this movie work for me. He gets
just as enthusiastic and almost as obsessed as Walter does and helps to
solve the mystery.
I must say
that this film has gotten some negative press but I really liked it. I
will probably add this to my DVD collection if only to see how many
instances of the number 23 I can notice. And yes, there are a ton of
them. The number 23 (number, not the movie) has some significance in
history as being regarded as a supernatural number. I'm sure you can
find tons of interesting articles and what not if you are interested.
Me, I just watch movies.
With an
ending that really caught me by surprise, The Number 23 is an ideal
movie for fans of flicks like Stay, The Sixth Sense, and
Donnie Darko if not just for
seeing Carrey in a serious role that he pulls off very well.
Until Carrey
does Ace Ventura 3: Ace in Jurassic Park,
keep reading
Mitch E.
mitchemerson@hotmail.com
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