Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

When Agatha Sparrow (Virginia Madsen) has an extra moment at a book store while waiting for her husband Walter (Jim Carrey), she picks up a book about the number 23. Written by Topsy Kretts (I would have gone with something like Drew Peacock or Jacques Strap), it's about loose numerology, and connections between statistics that soon consume Walter's life. Before making it through more than the first few chapters, he realizes that all the important numbers in his life, his important dates, his address, his zip code, his in-seam (just kidding), and his IQ (not kidding) can all be easily manipulated to some variation of the number 23. Paranoia ensues.

Jim Carrey's dual-performance as Walter, and Fingerling, the sociopath detective from the book causing the paranoia, is masterful. Carrey shows his range as an actor, distancing himself from the rubber-faced contortionist act that made him a superstar. And Virginia Madsen as a cleavage-displaying, sex-craved Fabrizia, a woman into bondage, sadomasochism, and rape fantasies is equally jaw dropping. In fact, combining her character with the cameo by Rhona Mitra makes me wish there were a sequel.

Portions of the cinematography are similarly ingenious. There are extreme color contrasts, with blacks darker than an eclipse battling bleached alabaster whites for the viewer's focus. The combination reminded me of aspects from Sin City.

Finally, the ending is interesting but a little predictable. If one allows themselves to delve into the story, it's quite easy to ignore the foreshadowing. For those who enjoy pointing out how a magician does something more than enjoying the magic, you may hate the ending.

As far as the actual point of the movie, well, that's pretty stupid. Forgive me, but it just doesn't add up. Jim Carey was born on Jan 17. If January is the number 1, and you add it to 17, there doesn't seem to be anything mysterious going on; it's only 18. But if you add the 5 times I rolled my eyes during the number theory explanations, wait, THAT'S 23!! What I learned from the movie are two terms I found to describe the plot. The first is apophenia, the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The second is known as the Texas sharpshooter fallacy. Basically, the idea comes from the idea of someone shooting several rounds into the broadside of a barn, and THEN painting a target in such a fashion to make it appear that the shots were on target. In other words, the conclusions are artificial.

Then again, I was born in 1976 (1+9+7+6=23)...

the movie was very good, a little confusing in the middle, but an over all good movie