When I started watching The Number 23, a wave of concern rippled through me. For the first 45 minutes the film comes off as a decent conspiracy-noir art flick—maybe a little boring and maybe a bit flimsy, but not Rottentomatoes 8% bad. Plus, art-DP Matthew Libatique's photography is all-out gorgeous. I was thinking that if people don't like this film, then how will audiences respond to our primitive effort?
Then it starts to get bad. And then it gets worse. And by the end it's a Jim Carrey comedy with Jim Carrey as the straight man. This is one of those yank-you-around films in the vein of The Illusionist. My main question now is why The Illusionist was so well received. Both films have a lot in common including decades-long third act expositions.
There are two problems with the film: the script and an absence of taste. The basic premise, while a little far-fetched, is not that bad. The problem is that the questions raised by the story are handled poorly and with a clumsy sense of proportion. Then, there's the matter of taste. The film shows a lot of things that simply shouldn't be shown. Editing out huge chunks of the last 30 minutes would make the film a lot better. That dog has just got to go.
The film isn't a total loss. I might get a cheap copy just for the cinematography. It really is beautiful. I love the way Libatique uses mixed temperature light sources and achieves rich, sumptuous color. Plus, there are the crazy peoples' rooms. Folks, this is the motherlode. You won't find more or crazier rooms anywhere. And yes, the red crazy room features a light bulb. I thought the performances were good considering what the actors were asked to do. Jim Carrey is fine until the end when he's asked to play crazy. I don't think crazy is playable. The closest I've seen that works is Martin Sheen at the beginning of Apocalypse Now. Virginia Madsen is a little annoying to watch because of her botoxed forehead which has a weird ripply appearance when she frowns. Christine Taylor's forehead has the same look too (opinion only, don't sue!). It got me thinking that computer fx makeup has gotten so advanced that actors will have to start rethinking plastic surgery. Maybe in the future, actors will bring personal fx artists along with their own makeup artists.
I've been looking forward to seeing this film for a long time. Not quite as instructive as I'd hoped, but worth seeing nonetheless.
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