The Number 23 (2007)
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Animal control officer Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.
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29 films that influenced The Number 23
What critics say influenced The Number 23
While The Number 23 will recall certain films in the minds of well-versed cinefilesBlue Velvet, Angel Heart, Memento, The Salton Sea and Carrey's own Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to name a fewthere's a vibrancy and a robust vibe to it that let it stand alone as something almost singular in the genre.
Unlike Guy Pearce in MEMENTO and Christian Bale in THE MACHINIST, Carrey has difficulty playing inner torment without making it look funny, an issue magnified by the silliness of the film's concept and director Joel Schumacher's concessions to utilizing the actor's skills to get laughs.
Danny Huston—with a little Mephistopheles beard that makes him look like Leslie Banks in The Most Dangerous Game (1932)—isn’t much better as a sinister psychiatrist.
While The Number 23 will recall certain films in the minds of well-versed cinefilesBlue Velvet, Angel Heart, Memento, The Salton Sea and Carrey's own Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to name a fewthere's a vibrancy and a robust vibe to it that let it stand alone as something almost singular in the genre.
His riffs on duality, obsession and other such psychoses didn't so much make me think of his ideas as of far superior films such as Angel Heart and Fight Club.
But in this case it could also refer to the number of gaspingly dumb plot contrivances in this ineffective suspense-thriller, which borrows its visual style from the 1995 serial killer thriller "Se7en" and at least a few of its story elements from last year's considerably better fantasy "Stranger Than Fiction."
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While The Number 23 will recall certain films in the minds of well-versed cinefilesBlue Velvet, Angel Heart, Memento, The Salton Sea and Carrey's own Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to name a fewthere's a vibrancy and a robust vibe to it that let it stand alone as something almost singular in the genre.
Instructive to compare The Number 23 to Marc Forster's far superior Stranger Than Fiction , another picture about a book of a life that hurtles to an inevitable conclusion that is nonetheless dishearteningly averted (and starring, as it happens, another physical, slapstick comedian playing it "straight"), in that where the one only fails when it dodges its existential despair, The Number 23 fails in not understanding the nature of the crisis itself.
But in this case it could also refer to the number of gaspingly dumb plot contrivances in this ineffective suspense-thriller, which borrows its visual style from the 1995 serial killer thriller "Se7en" and at least a few of its story elements from last year's considerably better fantasy "Stranger Than Fiction."
While The Number 23 will recall certain films in the minds of well-versed cinefilesBlue Velvet, Angel Heart, Memento, The Salton Sea and Carrey's own Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to name a fewthere's a vibrancy and a robust vibe to it that let it stand alone as something almost singular in the genre.
From a writing perspective, this is reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village," a film that was high in concept, but poor in execution.
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It's not surprising that Joel Schumacher would elect to make a low-budget flick like Tigerland.
Mis à part quelques surprenantes réussites telles Tigerland et Phone Booth, Schumacher est devenu au fil des ans un choix de premier ordre pour les studios à la recherche d’un réalisateur capable de s’ajuster aux dernières tendances hollywoodiennes sans laisser la moindre trace d’une quelconque forme de signature derrière lui.
And while cinematographer Matthew Libatique (a stellar craftsman who worked on Schumacher's "Tigerland") succeeds in making Carrey look creepy, the director and the material leave the actor stranded.
Joel Schumacher has made some compelling films in his time - the gritty Vietnam War film Tigerland and the taut popcorn thriller Phone Booth, both starring Colin Farrell, come to mind - but he often falls foul of cinematic flash over substance ( The Lost Boys), a need to get nightmarishly unpleasant ( 8MM), or both ( Batman & Robin).
Director Joel Schumacher, a man who has a tendency to get lost in the spectacle of things (though not always, as “Falling Down” and “Tigerland” will attest), directs the movie with flair but keeps the proceedings as grounded as the source material will allow.
It helps that in his most successful roles he wasn't asked to do much more than drop a one-liner every now and then (Nurse Betty being the most prominent example of this).