Classic Horrors Club

The Number 23 (2007) is the dark underbelly of yesterday’s movie, 2:22. That one featured a character with an obsession for a specific time (2:22) and ended with a profound revelation. This one features a character with an obsession for a specific number (23) and ends with a grim resolution. 2:22 nourishes the soul. The Number 23 destroys it. However, both are fun in their unique ways.

When I mentioned to a co-worker that I’d be watching The Number 23, she asked if it was “that one with Jim Carrey.” When I told her it was, she shook her head and said she just couldn’t imagine him playing a role like that. I reminded her that comedians oftentimes turn out to be fantastic actors. Indeed, Carrey is terrifying here as Walter Sparrow and his literary alter ego, Detective Fingerling.

The story unfolds differently than I expected. While Sparrow begins to recognize himself in a book named, “The Number 23,” and is afraid he’s going to become its protagonist… sort of… it’s only Fingerling whom we witness crossing over completely to the dark side. Both are obsessed with the number 23, but Sparrow has the wherewithal to at least attempt to take back his life. Fingerling reaches a point of no return.

It’s fascinating all the coincidences you can make for the appearance of the number, and all the calculations you can make to reach it. The concept is apparently based on the writings of William S. Burroughs, who came to believe the number held “mystical significance.” But what is that significance other than acting as a curse not unlike a videotape passed from one person to another. What does it all mean?

This movie doesn’t answer that, but it does provide a taut thriller that kept me guessing through the end. The epilogue is too optimistic for what we’ve seen, offering too little hope too late. Its brightness is out of place following the darkness we’ve faced. Cut that in the editing room, though, and I’d be hard pressed to find any nits to pick. I give a lot of credit to screenwriter Fernley Phillips for crafting such an intricate story.

Life imitates are as the concept of the movie emerges from the screen. Jim Carrey was paid $23 million to star in the film. When director Joel Schumacher died, he had made 23 theatrical films. The film was released in the United States on February 23, 2008. The DVD running time is 1:41:08… 14 + 1 + 8 = 23. The number of letters in Jim Carrey’s and Virginia Madsen’s names adds up to 23. And so on…

If you’re intrigued by such mysteries and are perhaps a bit of a conspiracy theorist, I bet you’d like The Number 23.