Film Reviews
By Nathaniel Bell

Suspense by the Numbers

“The Number 23,” a numerical thriller featuring Jim Carrey in his serious mode, is an early candidate for worst film of the year. Featuring a screenplay so preposterous, so impossibly convoluted, it’s sure to inspire titters instead of shudders. Ostensibly the story of an affable dogcatcher named Walter (Carrey) who gradually becomes obsessed with the number 23 after leafing through the pages of an old book, the movie takes several unsolicited detours into murder and insanity and arrives nowhere interesting. As it happens, the book contains sinister autobiographical details similar to Walter’s own, all of which hinge on that fateful double digit. Much to the dismay of his doting wife (Virginia Madsen), Walter becomes consumed with the mysterious text and its corresponding conspiracy theories, turning his home into a shrine à la Richard Dreyfuss in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Since Walter is something of an oddball to begin with, his descent into madness is hardly startling, and his compulsion never elicits the requisite sympathy.

Novice screenwriter Fernley Phillips dreamed up the tiresomely serpentine plot, which introduces a parallel plotline wherein the book’s main character, Fingerling (Carrey again), narrates in the style of a ‘30s detective novel. The nonstop drone of Fingerling’s voiceover threatens to swallow up the film—there’s a half-hour stretch in which he attempts to explain the previous hour’s events before continuing with the story. It’s a nightmare scenario for any self-respecting screenwriting professor. But even the sloppy structure might be forgiven if the film were compelling on a basic level. Denied.

Director Joel Schumacher shows a proclivity for unpleasant detail, like the sickening thud a body makes when it hits the pavement from a third-story window. It’s easy to think of other directors who’ve accomplished more with less, like Peter Weir did with “The Last Wave,” that eerie Australian thriller in which a lawyer accidentally stumbles onto a prophecy about the earth being destroyed by flood. One also recalls Darren Aronofsky’s ultra low-budget “Pi,” an ambitious brainteaser about a math genius intent on finding numerical patterns in the New York stock market. Even the more recent “Memento” and “Primer” are acquainted with the principle of giving the audience just enough information to keep them intrigued. “The Number 23” is eager to explain everything, and in doing so drains the scenario of any suspense. 

Send me your opinions at nbell@netlistings.com