By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
The Number 23 is an inane numbers game pretending to be a suspenseful psychological thriller. Not only is it not frightening, it's downright laughable.
Its compilation of the inherent creepiness of this random number is the numerical equivalent of gibberish. It feels like the cinematic version of those nonsensical symbols that sometimes appear on your computer screen in place of an e-mail message.
DO THE MATH: See a clip from The Number 23
Its compilation of the inherent creepiness of this random number is the numerical equivalent of gibberish. It feels like the cinematic version of those nonsensical symbols that sometimes appear on your computer screen in place of an e-mail message.
DO THE MATH: See a clip from The Number 23
Jim Carrey is woefully miscast as the everyman Walter Sparrow, a fatherly dog-catcher who becomes obsessed by a novel titled The Number 23. Virginia Madsen plays Agatha, his long-suffering wife who gives new meaning to the concept of supportiveness. When she discovers him asleep with a slew of numbers scrawled on his arm, à la Memento, and the message "Agatha. Kill her," wouldn't it be the time to suggest he seek professional help? Instead, she stands by her man. Even when she learns hideous, uncontested things about his past, she staunchly defends him as a good husband and father. The plot is equally inexplicable: contrived, incoherent and tedious.
As directed by Joel Schumacher, it's like a bad imitation of David Fincher's Seven. In fact, it includes nearly every horror movie cliché. (A particular favorite: Madsen's search for clues in the middle of the night in an abandoned mental hospital, now boarded up and surrounded by barbed wire.)
The biggest mystery about The Number 23 is why Carrey, who gave such a wondrously subtle performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, would stoop to taking this silly role.
Here's our homage to the film's tortured permutations of the numerals 2 and 3: 3 minus 2 equals 1. And there is only one reason to see this movie: You have absolutely nothing better to do.
Here's our homage to the film's tortured permutations of the numerals 2 and 3: 3 minus 2 equals 1. And there is only one reason to see this movie: You have absolutely nothing better to do.
1 comment:
Of course this movie sucked! The #23 Conspirators want to deflect attention from themselves. Why do you think they hired Joel Shumacher? To make a good movie? Ha!
Post a Comment