The Number 23 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

The Number 23 Blu-ray Movie Review

"You can't love me, no one can," Jim Carrey screams in this movie. Well, he's right, at least in a film like 'The Number 23.'

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 13, 2009

I am no stranger to obsession. Ask my wife about the decades I spent trying to unravel the truth about Golden Hollywood Era actress Frances Farmer (something I believe I accomplished), or, perhaps less related to film, my undying fascination with the Brazilian music idiom known as Bossa Nova, a compulsion (OK, I'll say it) that has left us with literally walls full of imported CDs. So I get it—when something takes hold of your consciousness in an unrelenting way, there’s no shaking it and often everything you see, hear and experience seems related to your, um, interest in some cosmic way. But, hoo boy, these 23-ophiles—well, they’re just flat out crazy. I first became aware of the fascination with this innocent enough seeming number when I read The Illuminati Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson (a man I later got to know and actually shared a performance bill with once). In Wilson’s world 23 was the number of Eris, the goddess of discord and chaos. I have therefore concluded Eris must have been the studio executive in charge of one of those Jim Carrey forays into “serious acting,” The Number 23, because the film is such a mishmash of ideas, styles and, ultimately, stupidity that you’ll feel like you yourself have been unfairly burdened with your own negative experience with the integer.

Jim Carrey as Walter Sparrow.

Jim Carrey’s charms have usually evaded me, even in some of his most popular comedic roles. I find him often overbearing, prone to incessant mugging and completely lacking in anything approaching nuance, something that tends to be more noticeable in dramatic outings than in patently cartoonish roles like The Mask or even Liar, Liar. He has had his moments, though--The Truman Show stands out as a good example of what’s he capable of when reigned in by an exacting director. Unfortunately, Carrey is here teamed with Joel Schumacher, a helmsman not exactly celebrated for his subtlety. The Number 23 posits Carrey as Walter Sparrow, a mild-mannered dog catcher with a lovely and supporting wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen, who must at this point be wondering if, despite Sideways, her career is some kind of cruel joke). When Walter’s dog catching duties keep him late one night, making Agatha have to wait for him, she finds an unusual little tome in a used bookstore, a self-published book called “The Number 23.” Leafing through it, she for some inexplicable reason (considering its bloody import) feels it’s the perfect birthday present for Walter. And, ladies and gentleman, we’re off on a two hour journey of personal obsession and delusion. Is the book telling Walter’s life story? Is he slowly turning into a grisly murderer? Can we all join together in praying that 24 isn’t the sequel to this mess?

There are so many outright absurdities in Fernley Phillips’ screenplay that it’s really probably a waste of time to attempt to enumerate them. But let’s just start with this—did no one involved with The Number 23 notice that the framing device with which the film begins makes virtually no sense in any timeframe (and this film jumps around quite a bit), especially in light of the final scene? While the middle of the film is at least fitfully interesting as the audience is left wondering whether what’s going on is all in Walter’s mind or is part of some vast right wing mathematical conspiracy, the denouement is so absolutely ridiculous most viewers will be rolling their eyes at least 46 times (that’s 23 for each socket). It plays out like one of those “modern” Twilight Zone episodes—you know, the kind without the writing skills of Rod Serling. Phillips has to jump through so many absurd hoops that any goodwill he’s fostered with the audience is left bleeding by the wayside, another victim of Walter’s alter ego Fingerling.

What The Number 23 does offer is an appealingly diverse visual style that veers from the nicely lowkey reality of the home scenes with Carrey and Madsen, to the blanched, often amber-imbued “vision” scenes that Carrey sees as he reads the book, scenes that play out like the golden cousin to film noir. Unfortunately what The Number 23 also offers is Carrey—the man is simply genetically incapable of not mugging, even when the film cries out for some sort of underplaying to help offset its completely hyperbolic screenplay. Carrey conveys menace by screwing up his eyebrows and rolling his eyes up toward them, something that left me wondering when he was going to blurt out, “Well, all-righty then!” The scenes of his mental breakdown are unintentionally hilarious (at least I’m hoping it was unintentional) and completely undercut the tenor of the film. Poor Virginia Madsen is left largely on the sidelines. How an actress of this grace and intelligence ends up in dreck like this is anyone’s guess. I hope at least the paycheck was substantial.

The Number 23 goes to great lengths to offer “proof” of the number’s ubiquity and apparent malevolent import. Unfortunately, the best proof of 23’s evil proclivities is this film itself.

The Number 23 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

If The Number 23 has some pretty glaring flaws, none of them are the result of some of the most diverse and stylish cinematography in recent memory, courtesy of ace DP Matty Libatique. This VC-1 encoded Blu-ray offers an at times stunning depth of field and unusually broad and varied palette that offers both the sunny, bucolic warmth of the Sparrow home environment as well as the slowly morphing worlds of Walter's interior visions. In the "real world," we are still greeted with some unusual (and striking) color choices, as with the blood red wall that lines the living room, and all of these hues pop magnificently on the Blu-ray. This transfer really shines, though, in the very inventive visual effects sequences, which vary from the painterly childhood segments to the overexposed "Suicide Blonde" sequence to the hellish hues of Walter's murderous hallucinations (or are they?). Throughout this extremely wide stylistic tour, the Blu-ray offers superior clarity and astoundingly nuanced color, as well an immersive dimensionality that is quite arresting at times, as when Walter's scribbles virtually ooze through the screen as the camera tracks forward. Grain has been pumped up for some of the "vision" sequences, but overall this film has a very natural look. There is some minor line shimmer on some of the written words, usually when scrawled on a book page rather than on any of the other many surfaces on which they appear. On visual terms alone, divorced from the film itself, The Number 23 rates a solid 9+.

The Number 23 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I'm not sure I've ever experienced a 6.1 mix before, but this DTS HD-MA offering is a wonderful exercise in immersion, capped by some of the most heart-stopping thump-worthy LFE in recent memory. Whether it's Walter slamming doors shut, or aural "shock cuts" meant to pump up a scare scene, this soundtrack absolutely bristles with low end ferocity, and the DTS track reproduces it all with nary a moment of distortion. Dialogue and underscore are both reproduced with excellent fidelity, and the dynamic range between the quieter spoken moments and some of the LFE effects is really pretty amazing. There is continuous use of surround channels throughout The Number 23, with everything from "evil dog" Ned running to and fro to a bus about to mow down Walter in a later scene panning effortlessly through the channels with very sharp directionality. Some listeners may feel that this mix does indeed rely too heavily (literally) on the low end, which can be wearying after a while, but it makes this track unignorably visceral, for better or worse.

The Number 23 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both the theatrical cut (1:38) and the unrated version (1:41) are presented via seamless branching on this Blu-ray. Other extras, all in HD, include:

A commentary by Joel Schumacher (theatrical cut only), which is fairly informative if often self-congratulatory.

Focus Points, (theatrical cut only) branching featurettes which become available when the gold disc in the upper left corner appears. Several of these are quite interesting, the best of which are the ones focusing on the cinematography and visual effects.

Fact Track, (theatrical cut only) a fairly useless set of pop up text items like "Principal photography started on January 23, 2006." Oooooh, spooky!

Making of 'The Number 23'" (22:20), a fairly standard talking head featurette (couldn't they have found 40 more seconds to freak timecode obsessives out?).

Creating the World of Fingerling (11:11), a good in depth look at several of the effects sequences.

How to Do Your Numbers, a brief introduction to numerology focusing on adding up all the numerals of your birth month, day and year to arrive at your "principal number." This feature is split into several subsections, with brief comments on each of the integers 1 through 9.

About 14 and a half minutes of Deleted and Alternate Scenes, including a nifty opening segment that is better than the final cut of the film. The Number 23 Enigma (HD, 25:03), in many ways more compelling than the film itself, features interviews with mathematicians, psychologists and numerologists all talking about this number's particular fascination. (And why didn't the featurette producer bring this in at 23:05, just to spook observant viewers?).

The Number 23 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Number 23 is one of the most visually arresting films I've seen lately. Unfortunately that flash is all in the service of virtually no substance, with a hackneyed, often nonsensical, script and a tone deaf performance by Jim Carrey. Even the wonderful Virginia Madsen can't save this mess. It's a scary, scary movie, but not in the way its makers intended.