Denerstein: Carrey's unlucky number

Actor proves game in unfunny role, but confusion and lack of credibility do in psychological thriller '23'

Published February 23, 2007 at midnight

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Jim Carrey grows his hair long and pulls a face to match in The Number 23, a psychological thriller that once again forces the actor to put aside his clown's mask. But of all of Carrey's serious or semi-serious films - The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, The Majestic and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - The Number 23 comes across as the hands-down worst.

The major mistake Carrey made was agreeing to do the movie in the first place. Otherwise, he handles the movie's chores capably enough, exploring the soul of downtrodden Walter Sparrow, a dogcatcher who becomes obsessed with a novel that his wife (Virginia Madsen) buys for him.

Although the novel, self-published by its author, looks fairly thin, Walter spends most of the movie reading it. As he makes his way through the novel, he begins to identify with the main character, a detective named Fingerling. Walter sees alarming parallels between his life and that of the fictional character.

This fiction-reality split gives director Joel Schumacher an opportunity to divide the movie between scenes of Sparrow's strained but ordinary life and the life he imagines as he reads the novel. In the segments depicting events in the novel, Madsen plays Fabrizia, a sexy but duplicitous woman. Carrey portrays Fingerling.

But what of the title? It doesn't take much insight to know that the movie itself becomes a feverish obsession built around the number 23, which has many mystical associations. You can look it up.

In any case, the more Walter reads about the number 23, the more unhinged he becomes, perhaps even to the point where his sanity is threatened. His wife and son (Logan Lerman) observe him with increasing alarm.

Schumacher (Phantom of the Opera, Phone Booth) keeps the movie stylish. The Number 23 has a substantially serious look, and at times it definitely feels like another helping of eerie chic. I haven't seen the movie's trailer, but I bet it's tantalizing.

It takes a while for The Number 23 to go south, but eventually its various convolutions and teases begin to engender more impatience than mystery.

Not everyone will agree, but I thought the outcome was reasonably easy to outguess.

The main story involves Walter's quest to learn who wrote the novel, which describes a 15-year-old murder. I had trouble buying any of this, and I'm betting that, after its opening weekend, Carrey's fans will steer clear of this mid- February release.

I probably could give you 23 reasons why you should, too. I'll settle for one: Carrey and Schumacher's movie - too much confusion for too little payoff - may provide its characters with reason to obsess, but it's more likely to leave audiences shrugging in disbelief.

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