The Number 23 (2007)

23

the movie was very good, a little confusing in the middle, but an over all good movie
November 16, 2008

horror

it rock this movie puts u on the edge it has lot of surprise's in it u will love it buy November 9, 2008

Number 23-A lame story, but Jim Carrey's performance was good

Number 23 rated about two or three stars in my book. It deals with the never ending fascination that many people have with certain apparantly meaningful numbers. Pi (3.14159, etc.) was another and I think superior film that dealt with the subject of obsessing over certain numbers.

Jim Carrey pulled off the somewhat interesting plot which held my interest until roughly two thirds of the way through the story. It was interesting to see him in a serious role for a change and witness his acting virtuosity.

As far as I am concerned I never see the number "23" repeated in my own life and find the premise of the film ridiculous. Obviously, the number that shows up constantly in life is "13", as in my first address was 1363 something or other, 1+3+6+3=13. Note that this type of arithmetic transaction is representative of the premise of this movie; only substitute the number "23".

All kidding aside the film pi and a mathematician's preoccupation with that particular number was a much more interesting film. Speaking as an engineer and a person with a certain fascination with all numbers I find the distribution of ratings from Amazon reviewers interesting with a flat, approximately equal number of ratings in each star group. I hope the limited success of this film does not sway Jim Carrey from trying his hand at more serious roles in the future.
October 28, 2008

For his first serious film, this is good stuff from Jim Carrey

Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) is a family-man married with Agatha Sparrow (Virginia Madsen), and works catching dogs in the Department of Animal Control and has a teenager son very close to his wife and him. On the day of his birthday, he is bitten by a dog and comes late to meet Agatha. While waiting for him, Agatha buys a detective book with a novel about the mystery around the number 23 in a bookstore as a gift to Walther. He becomes captivated with the story and obsessed with the number 23, finding many coincidences with his own life, and he decides to find the author, believing the story is about him. His further investigation discloses a mysterious situation that makes Walther paranoid.

The dark "The Number 23" is a great tale of obsession, paranoid and redemption. The story and the characters are very well developed, the final twist is totally unexpected and the film has a stylish cinematography and edition, with intense use of dark colors. There are stunning sequences, like for example when the boy meets the widow dead on her bed, or the meeting of Fingerling with Suicide Blonde. Jim Carrey is perfect and Virginia Madsen is still a very beautiful and sexy woman and has a great performance. In spite of having a moralist conclusion, it works and leaves a magnificent message of justice and moral standards that are almost forgotten in the present days. October 17, 2008

Numerical Madness

This is the best, and certainly the most interesting, of Jim Carey's movies. We aren't aware of it initially but, through the Carey character, we see a world slowly unraveling, and the dissolution is somehow related to the otherwise unremarkable number 23. Carey comes to the recognition that everything in his environment relates in some way--by multiplication, division or the number, itself--to the number 23.

Carey's world becomes progressively darker, more surreal and frightening as everything becomes increasingly incomprehensible. The harder he struggles to understand, the less sense things make. Ultimately we realize that we, along with the character, have been dragged into the confusion of losing our minds.

It is more, however, than just an exercise in mental illness. A beautiful young girl has been brutally murdered. Carey, at the same time the victim and the perpetrator, must pay the legal price...otherwise he will never regain his sanity or his soul. An interesting and intelligent flick.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico August 19, 2008

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