Review: The Number 23

Director : Joel Schumacher
Main Cast : Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen

Actually the number 23 itself has personal meaning for me. I was born on 2nd March (2/3), and the number of letters in my full name (Mohammad Ozairi bin Othman)? You guessed it right - 23. That fact, an intriguing teaser trailer, and the involvement of one of my favourite actors made me look really forward to watching the film.



Sadly, all the hype, all the excitement came to nothing. The Number 23 aspires to be one of those much-discussed about films of mystery and mystique. But the end result falls as flat as a burnt piece of roti canai. Jim Carrey does his best to play a man slowly losing his sanity while burying himself ever more deeper in his obsession with the cursed prime number. For you anti-Carrey people out there, this is him in his "serious-pity-him-loser" mode, similar to his role in the great Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. For a truly magnificent piece of acting in a similar role though, you can't beat Richard Dreyfuss' in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

Agent Dana Scully look-a-like Virginia Madsen is passable as his supporting wife, though The Number 23 essentially hangs on the strength of Jim Carrey, being present in almost every scene.

The Number 23 does not have much substance in plot, and relies on unnecessary stretching of "flashback" scenes and Da Vinci Code style step-by-step explanations to the viewers to pad out the film to its measly 96 minutes, a movie length usually reserved for cartoons that serve ADD-suffering 6 year olds. Oddly, it still felt too long - by 23 minutes, I might guess.