The Number 23
Starring: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Danny Huston
Director: Joel Schumacher
The film: Could Jim Carrey ever make it as an actor beyond the universe of jokes and jesters? It's a question viewers will be left to ponder after watching The Number 23, a psychological thriller that the comedian probably embraced to gain recognition as more than just a merchant of facial contortions and loose-limbed foolhardiness.
Just as he does in Man on the Moon and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, two films whose primary purpose is to emote rather than engross, Carrey shows here that he's more than able to carry a role with emotional depth. The problem here, however, is that he has chosen a vehicle that lacks exactly that: The Number 23 is a psychological thriller that fails to enthral or convince. Its plot is riddled with paranormal nonsense, dangling loose ends and denouements leading to a final twist that simply does not add up.
The film's title refers to the number Carrey's character - middle-class, mild-mannered dog-catcher Walter Sparrow (right) - believes is a ghostly constant in his life, whether it turns up in the form of important dates or names (the latter working when alphabets are translated into numbers). It's all down to a dog-eared book his confectionery-making wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen) comes across in a second-hand bookshop, a tome about a number 23-obsessed man whose tribulations Walter believes to be a spooky mirror of his own life.
