THE
NUMBER 23
By
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com
victoriaa@theflickchicks.com
masauu@aol.com
Glaring
flaws in the story makes it silly and too contrived to be a good thriller.
My weekly column, “The Devil’s Hammer,” appears every Monday on
www.FromTheBalcony.com.
The Devil's Hammer on FTB
I liked “The Number 23” even though there were glaring flaws in the story
and Virginia Madsen (“The Astronaut Farmer”) annoyed me once again by
playing a wife who looks at her husband as if he was the Baby Jesus. Yes,
and her character has been married to Baby Jesus for over 17 years and he
the village dog catcher.
He’s also stark raving crazy and she never had a clue.
I know someone who is in the thrall to numbers. It is quite frustrating
since there are numbers everywhere! And, just to let you know, license plate
numbers are eerily significant. I am impressed that my friend can quickly
add up numbers and knows what every number means – to him, to me, to the
planet, as well as the number’s relationship to God.
Fantastic
husband and wonderful father Walter Sparrow (Carrey), a mild mannered,
gentle dog catcher, meets up with one mean dog named Ned. Getting bitten by
Ned makes him late to pick up his devoted wife Agatha (Madsen). She wanders
into a used bookstore and scans a self-published hand-scratched book, “The
Number 23.” She insists Walter read it. The book is a detective story told
in the first person by a character named Fingerling. As Walter reads the
book, we are shown the story of Fingerling (Carrey). He’s jaded, ruined, and
hot! He has a bad, sexy girlfriend, Fabrizia (Madsen). They have nasty,
nasty sex. Fingerling likes it that way. Are we finally seeing Carrey
exactly how he wants us to?
Filming these scenes must have been lots of fun. (No doubt the selling point
for Carrey and Madsen.) There were slaps, handcuffs, and knives but no Gimp
mask (that was on FX’s “Dirt”. Courteney Cox’s Lucy’s mother is kinky but
she and her husband do have a safe word).
Walter sees
that the book reflects everything about his life. These coincidental
comparisons completely eludes Agatha, who doesn’t know a thing about
Walter’s past.
Detective Fingerling is sent to find a girl, "Suicide Blonde" (Lynn
Collins), who is being tormented, controlled, and morally and psychically
destroyed by the Number 23. After she kills herself, Fingerling then feels
that the Number 23 has attached itself to him! Reading the book and the
similarities to his own life, Walter starts to believe the Number 23 has
glommed on to him!
There is an
unsatisfactory twist I will not disclose. All I will say is loyalty and love
go only so far. Agatha was one dumb wife.
Who is her friend Dr. Miles Phoenix (Danny Huston) and why is there a
romantic photo of them in their? Why is he always around?
New Line Cinema sent me a sheet of paper with tons of Number 23 references.
Could there be something to this? The screenplay by Fernley Phillips had
potential, but the surrounding dog catcher story is weak. As I personally
know, numbers can obsess people. I remember back in the day of the New Age
craze, everyone was changing the spelling of their name to attract a more
favorable number.
I confess. For
a very short time, I changed the spelling of my first name, Victoria, to
Vittoria!
Why did Carrey pick cursed director Joel Schumacher? Didn’t he look at
Schumacher’s track record, or, was he promised an indulgent director?
Carrey, getting too old for slapstick comedy, is in the right direction and
he does quite an adequate job of showing us Walter’s breakdown. While “The
Number 23” is not his life jacket out of comedy, it does show that he can be
sexy, dangerous, and can leave the rubbery face behind. All he needs – it is
what every actor needs – is a director who is in love with him.
Radar magazine’s Feb. 13th issue has an article on Jim Carrey. Radar labels
Carrey "unpredictable" and blaming the collapse of some recent projects on
his "bizarre behavior and on-set tantrums."
Radar reports:
“Apparently Carrey annoyed colleagues after he "unzipped his fly and
urinated" during a scene on his upcoming film, "The Number 23" - a touch
that wasn't in the script. "Dealing with Carrey proved so harrowing for 'Fun
With Dick and Jane's' director [Dean Parisot] that he now refers to the film
as 'Fun With Jane,'" the story claims. "He was scary," a "Lemony Snicket"
exec says. "When producers ... expressed the studio's concerns to Carrey,
director Brad Silberling recalls, the star bristled. He said, 'You should
stop right now, because what you're about to say may mess up my creativity
for the rest of this movie.'" Three big Carrey films since last year have
been delayed or canned, including "Used Guys" with Ben Stiller and a Cameron
Diaz project.”
"I've gone through periods when I couldn't shut off the conversations in my
head. That's kind of a form of insanity, when you can't control it, when
it's taking over" - Jim Carrey to the London Times.
Carrey’s well
known tough childhood may be the source of his creativity and his
strangeness. When he was 13 years old his father lost his job and the entire
family took security and janitorial jobs. For a time the family was in such
financial straits that they lived in their Volkswagen van or in a tent on a
relative's lawn. In order to help out, Carrey began working eight-hour
shifts each day after school. He once wrote a check worth $20 million,
hoping one day to cash it in. A few years after that, his father died. He
then placed the check he wrote to himself inside the pocket of his father's
funeral clothes.
At my father’s funeral, I placed a few dollars in his pocket and a watch. I
told the funeral director that when my father was in The Spirit World he
would have “walking around money” and be in demand since he would know what
time it was. He’d be much better off then the others who didn’t even have
shoes. Everyone arrives in the afterlife absolutely broke! I often burn
“Representational Money” (called “joss money” in the Chinese culture) for my
father so he can enjoy some of the commissary perks of The Spirit World.
I heard that Carrey’s father always waves around that check saying, “I told
you so! My boy is rich! He gave me a 20 million dollars.”
Victoria Alexander lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and answers every email. You
can contact Victoria directly at
masauu@aol.com or by
visiting
www.FilmsInReview.com
THE NUMBER 23
New Line Cinema
Contrafilm/Firm Films
Credits:
Director: Joel Schumacher
Screenwriter: Fernley Phillips
Producers: Beau Flynn, Tripp Vinson
Executive producers: Mike Drake, Toby Emmerich, Richard Brener, Keith
Goldberg, Brooklyn Weaver, Eli Richbourg
Director of photography: Matthew Libatique
Production designer: Andrew Laws
Editor: Mark Stevens
Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Cast:
Walter Sparrow/Fingerling: Jim Carrey
Agatha Sparrow/Fabrizia: Virginia Madsen
Robin Sparrow: Logan Lerman
Isaac French/Dr. Miles Phoenix: Danny Huston
Suicide Blonde/Mrs. Dobkins/Young Fingerling's Mother: Lynn Collins
Laura Tollins: Rhona Mitra
Running time -- 95 minutes
MPAA rating: R
My weekly column, “The
Devil’s Hammer,” appears every Monday on
FromTheBalcony.com and on
www.lasvegaroundtheclock.com.
