Saturday, March 10, 2007

The Number 23


Yesterday, we brought our student and a friend of his to Sudbury for a movie, shopping and some good eats. We saw the movie The Number 23, a psychological thriller, starring Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen. The concept behind the movie was interesting. Right away, one can see the importance of the number 23 in the film. The "23 Enigma" is the Discordian belief that all events are connected to the number 23, given enough ingenuity on the part of the interpreter.

Jim Carrey plays a man whose life begins to unravel after his wife gives him a book (entitled The Number 23) for his birthday. As he gets more into the book, he begins to believe that the book is about his own life. He becomes obsessed with the number 23 and it consumes his him- his thoughts, his life...everything. The more he reads the book, the more he begins to see the extent to how grave his situation is. In essence, the film is about obsessive behaviour and paranoia.

The movie starts off pretty slowly. Okay, I was trying hard not to fall asleep in the beginning, and three thoughts popped into my mind: A) Why on earth did we choose to see this movie? B) I wonder if we can leave without watching the entire movie? and C) I wonder if anyone would notice if I just took a snooze for the remainder of the movie?

Just when I thought I would succumb to slumber, the movie started getting interesting. The part where Walter (Jim Carrey's character) and Fingerling's (the 'fictional' character in the book who is also played by Carrey) lives began to mesh and things just seemed too coincidental...that was the part that caught my attention. Was his wife trying to make him crazy? Was the professor the insane one? So many twists and turns! For some parts of the movie, I was just totally confused. This may be a movie I'd have to watch a second time to appreciate and understand more.

The ending was a surprise and there were lots of twists in the story. The movie certainly had a few good hooks. The idea that the number 23 is everywhere, certainly does intrigue me. From important dates in history, the angle of the earth's axis, Psalm 23, to Human sex cells having 23 pairs of chromosomes, and much, much more, had me thinking of the importance of the number 23 . The letters in important historical names, dates, places, and events all added up to the number 23 in the movie. It was quite eerie. The tag line in the movie trailer says "The truth will find you". Again, very eerie! Then again, one can always find connections and meaning to anything if one tries hard enough. I'd rate this movie a 6 out of 10.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds interesting. He mostly plays in comedies, doesn't he? It would be interesting to see him playing a darker role.

Anonymous said...

I saw the preview for that one and it looks scarey!

BusyMamma said...

just that picture alone makes me certain i won't be seeing that film!

Anonymous said...

http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=reviews&id=8968

This review of the movie made me laugh so hard some pee came out.

Unknown said...

Pete: It was interesting to see Jim Carrey play a role that wasn't his normal goofy self.

Anon: It was kind of scary.

Dina: Yeah, I didn't really want to see that movie, but the boys did.

Stephen: That's hilarious! LOL! Yeah, it wasn't the greatest movie. The premise was interesting, but the movie was just mediocre.

Anonymous said...

Yeah. I saw it and like you I was a little disappointed. The idea is good, but the movie didn't make the most of a great concept.

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City girl moves to the country, falls in love, and marries a farmer. She tries to incorporate her city ways with her new country lifestyle and blogs to keep in touch with friends, family & students who live far, far away :) Can this city girl go country? Watch as she learns all sorts of exciting things about life on the farm and in a small rural community. *UPDATE* We are now parents! Our baby girl was born on Nov. 11, 2008 (at 28 weeks gestation- 12 weeks premature, but she's quite the trooper)!!!
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