The number of flavors that can be found in a can of Dr Pepper is 23. The number is also on Michael Jordan’s jersey. But 23 is not, however, a concept on which you can base the entire plot of a film. Not if you want it to be good, at least.
The Number 23 begins innocently enough, with Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey, Fun With Dick and Jane) going about his ordinary life as a dogcatcher. Carrey even manages to insert some unavoidable laughs into the beginning scenes of the film. But on Walter’s birthday, his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen, A Prarie Home Companion), buys him a book called The Number 23, and all opportunity for humor disappears.
So begin Walter’s flashes into the Sin City-esque fictional world of the novel. These moments of pure insanity, where he actually imagines himself as his fictional alter ego, Fingerling, seem to parallel his own past and revolve around – you guessed it – the number 23. And while he starts down a path toward irreversible paranoia and fear, the audience doesn’t follow him the way they should in order to make any psychological thriller a success. Instead, they stand idly by, waiting for this oddly pieced-together mystery to start making sense to anyone besides the protagonist.
As a result of the flashes, the audience can only conclude there is a loose resemblance between the lives of Walter and Fingerling. The only thing to which Walter can logically trace his newfound lunacy is the number – which only makes his wife, and viewers, think he is completely nuts. The parallels he makes between himself and the number start to become ridiculous, and while they are just a tad creepy, you soon start to realize that you don’t care. After all, 23 isn’t a weapon-yielding murderer; it’s just a number. And for a good portion of the movie, an unclear plotline makes it hard to understand why it is so frightening.
Just as Walter’s pointless paranoia starts to come to a peak, he finishes the book and realizes this: If his life is truly mimicking Fingerling’s, he will kill his wife. When he begins having nightmares of doing just that, it’s the viewer’s first taste of real concern. Waking up in a cold sweat after a particularly knuckle-whitening dream, Walter takes off and spends the night in a hotel, where things really start to unravel.
Without any warning at all, several more plot elements find their way into the mix, including the long-past murder of an innocent girl. The story shifts rather violently into a quest to find her murderer, whom Walter believes is also the author of the book.
After researching the death of the young woman and the man who was jailed for her murder, Walter seeks him out in prison in hopes that he is indeed the author and can point out a way to end his newly obsessive behavior. In doing so, Walter only finds himself convinced the man imprisoned, Kyle Finch (Mark Pellegrino, Capote), is innocent, and the murderer is still at large. The scene between Carrey and Pellegrino is one of the points of finer acting in the film, and one of the least irrational.
It is in Walter’s continuing goose chase that he realizes exactly what he’s looking for, and he finally gets some clues to his mystery. The answer he comes up with, however, makes him wish he’d never picked up the book.
Although The Number 23’s story line unfolds too slowly at first and then moves too quickly for anyone to be shocked by the surprise ending, Jim Carrey delivers a believable performance, even if the writing undoubtedly made it difficult to do so.
Despite an intriguing basis and capable actors, this movie’s plot should have been much more delicately strung together. Instead, it relies on creepy camera work and basic math to pass as a thriller. As a result, The Number 23 ends up as only the amount of minutes it takes you to become confused and slightly bored.
Contact reporter Courtney Pomeroy at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.
