Thrills add up in The Number 23

By Lucian Tucker
Collegian Editor
February 28, 2007

The theater where I saw The Number 23 was between 2nd and 3rd Streets. I live in Teresa Court, commonly known as TC (T = 20, C = 3, TC = 23). Inside the Hayman Center, to the North, there are five jerseys hanging. The jersey numbers are 22, 33, 32, 23 and an odd 15. Okay so maybe it’s not perfect, but my point is clear — if you look, the number 23 is everywhere.

Directed by Joel Schumacher, The Number 23 follows humble dogcatcher Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) who, after a series of unfortunate events, becomes obsessed with a novel entitled The Number 23. The strange red book depicts Detective Fingerling (also Carrey) whose life Sparrow finds is much like his, with few differences.

Like Fingerling, Sparrow begins to find the number 23 everywhere. This includes, but is definitely not limited to, his license plate, birthday and wife’s name.

Sparrow’s scary obsession with the number 23, along with the eerie parallels between Fingerling’s life and his own, causes him to become paranoid, and he fears that Fingerling’s fate foreshadows his own.

The Number 23’s lead role requires a “serious” performance, Carrey performs adequately, which is unfortunate. If instead of Carrey the leading actor was an “unknown,” the movie would have been better.

Periodically, the movie literally dives into the book and Carrey takes the role of Fingerling. It is in these neo-noir computer enhanced scenes that Carrey shines. Still, while I imagine the book would be an interesting read if it were real, in the movie the book scenes suffer from mediocre acting from the supporting cast.

Although Carrey does seem awkward in scenes, and the supporting actors don’t do much to assist, the movie’s issues may be more so the fault of the screenwriter and the plot, which probably reads “23, 23, 23.”

The number 23 echoes throughout the film just a little too much. But then again, the title of the film is The Number 23. It did not bother me much, but I can imagine how easily someone could get tired of watching a big math movie where the main character takes numbers and letters and in every scene makes them equal 23. I wonder if there are 23 scenes…

Although I’ve been downing on the movie the past few paragraphs, I actually liked The Number 23. Because of the unique storyline, I have to at least give the film a B-rating. And I suppose it wasn’t too easy for the screenwriter to think of 230 different ways for the protagonist to say, “23.”

Interesting how it’s because of these same reasons the movie suffers. Due to the weak storyline, the movie has little room to work with. And, like I stated earlier, the number 23 being repeated so often can get annoying. I bet readers of this article are probably already tired of seeing it.

The one thing this movie was definitely successful at is making me suspicious of the number 23. I pointed the number out at least 10 times between leaving the movie theater and reaching my residence. And I’ve seen it countless times since then. See this movie at your own risk.

tuckerl1@lasalle.edu