15, 98 mins

Jim Carrey must be one of the only actors who, when required to convey a descent into madness and frenzied obsession, has to tone down his usual performance by several notches. Joel Schumacher’s incoherent psychological thriller The Number 23 relies a little too heavily on Carrey’s ability to play it straight, something he’s capable of doing with a high-quality script such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . Given a shaky screenplay full of creaky devices, however, and Carrey doesn’t know what to do.

In earlier scenes he tries out his trademark gurning and mugging; later he falls back on a crazy-eyed stare and hair that looks as if it has been styled with lard. It’s not his finest moment.

BACKGROUND

• The Number 23

• Go figure this

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Related Internet Links

• 2007 London Film Festival coverage

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The premise is that an animal control officer, Walter Sparrow (Carrey), receives a secondhand novel from his wife and immediately begins to identify with its protagonist, a troubled man who calls himself Fingerling. A jaded detective, Fingerling witnesses the suicide of a young woman who believes that she is being pursued by the number 23. Fingerling develops the same obsession with the number, and, avidly devouring the pages of this dismal pulp thriller, Walter does the same.

That some people actually believe that there is a “23 enigma” is almost as depressing as the fact that opportunistic film-makers have crowbarred this lacklustre movie into the phenomenon. Examples of the mysterious workings of the number 23: there are 23 letters in the Latin alphabet; Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times; William Shakespeare was born and died on April 23; the Knights Templar had 23 grand masters. Whoo. Spooky stuff. The obvious response of any right-thinking person will be a resounding ‘So what?’. But in Hollywood, a string of meaningless coincidences is clearly enough to get the production cheques signed.

The fundamental problem arises when it becomes evident that being pursued by a set of digits is just not very scary. Carrey might as well be being stalked by the letter B. To counter the utter dullness of the premise, Schumacher hurls the camera around in the hope that some of the audience will mistake showy shooting for thrills. And then he executes one of the most desperate and implausible narrative contrivances I’ve seen in a long time.

This is a film that doesn’t quite know what it is. Not a horror, although there is a hint of the paranormal implied; nor is it an effective thriller. Perhaps a mistake would be the fairest description.

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