The
Number 23
Came
out; 2007
Time;
1 hr 38 Min
Watched:
Amazon
Rated:
R for violence, disturbing images, sexuality and language
IMDB
Rating; 6.4/10
Caution;
Spoiler Alert
Staring;
Jim
Carrey as Walter Sparrow
Virginia
Madsen as Agatha Sparrow
Logan
Lerman as Robin Lerman
Danny
Huston as Isaac French
Story
Line;
On
his birthday, Walter Sparrow, an amiable dogcatcher, takes a call
that leaves him with a dog bite and late to pick up his wife. She's
browsed in a bookstore, finding a blood-red-covered novel, a murder
mystery with numerology that loops constantly around the number 23.
The story captivates Walter: he dreams it, he notices aspects of his
life that can be rendered by "23," he searches for the
author, he stays in the hotel (in room 23) where events in the novel
took place, and he begins to believe it was no novel. His wife and
son try to help him, sometimes in sympathy, sometimes to protect him.
Slowly, with danger to himself and to his family, he closes in on the
truth
Thoughts:
I
remember watching this movie when it first came out. Jim Carrey was a
huge movie star for awhile and it was different to have him in a
serious role.
This
is such a good movie, there are several plot holes of course but it
plays out really crazy.
The
movie switched between the book events and real life over the course
of the run time, it was really good and then when the twist comes it
doesn't stop.
CAUTION;
Major Spoiler Alert
Introduction. The
Number 23 is
the story of Walter Sparrow, a man with a shattered childhood who has
murdered a woman in a jealous rage, then attempted suicide, failed,
recovered without memory of his awful past and of the awful things he
had done. Years later, he reads a book that he wrote while insane
(though he does not know he was the author while he reads it) that
contains the key to his past and to the location of the murdered
woman's body. The key is the number 23. Only he can use the key to
find the truth, of which he is unaware, a truth that can drive him
insane once again. The film portrays his obsession with the number 23
and his gradual discovery of the truth from his contemporary
perspective. To accomplish its magic, the film utilizes a
multilayered plot:
Layer 1 is the current events in the life
of Walter Sparrow (Jim
Carrey): his
relationship with his wife Agatha (Virginia
Madsen) and his
son Robin (Logan
Lerman), a
family friend, Isaac French (Danny
Huston), and
Ned, a black and white bulldog, and most importantly there's his
obsession with the number 23;
Layer 2 is the events in the
book The Number 23: A Novel of Obsession by Topsy Kretts which Walter
is reading - onto its characters Walter projects the people in his
life: Himself as Fingerling (a police detective who is the embodiment
of Walter's aspirations), himself as Isobel Lydia Hunt (a woman known
as the Suicide Blonde who is the embodiment of Walter's tragedies,
who witnessed suicide in her own family just as Walter witnessed
suicide in his own family, who is driven crazy by the number 23 just
as Walter is driven crazy by the number 23, and who subsequently
commits suicide just as Walter tried to commit suicide), Agatha as
Fabrizia (Fingerling's lover), and Isaac as Dr. Miles Phoenix (the
police department's psychiatrist), plus a projection of his mother
(Lynn
Collins) as the
widow Dobkins (a neighbor who committed suicide and whose body
Fingerling found when he was eight years old) - in the course of the
film and after a few red herrings the viewer discovers that Walter is
Topsy Kretts, that the story is his forgotten past, and that he was
insane when he wrote it; and
Layer 3 is the actual events from
Walter's past which he has suppressed, especially Walter's
relationship with and murder of a college student, Laura Tollins
(Rhona
Mitra), who once
jilted him, and with Kyle Flinch (Mark
Pellegrino),
Laura's psychology professor and lover who was subsequently and
wrongfully convicted of her murder and who, in his mind, Walter
projects as Isaac. The book contains a message that discloses the
location of Laura's corpse but in a form (using the number 23) that
only Walter can understand.
Walter's reuse of real people as
his projections of the characters in the book and the piece-wise
disclosure of Walter's story makes figuring out the plot of The
Number 23 (2007) a
challenging task.
February 3. It's Walter's birthday. During
the last animal control call of the day he's bitten by Ned. He chases
the dog but loses it in a graveyard. He sees a gravestone bearing the
name of Laura Tollins and is left with a feeling of familiarity as
though he knew her (which of course he did but doesn't remember).
Walter's brush with Ned causes him to be late picking up Agatha from
her cake shop. While she waits for him, Agatha visits a nearby book
store and buys a book, The Number 23: A Novel of Obsession by Topsy
Kretts, which she gives to Walter. That night, Walter begins reading
the book. Chapter 1: In its first paragraph, the book's protagonist,
Fingerling, attributes his nickname to a children's book, Fingerling
at the Zoo, which Walter remembers well from his own
childhood.
February 4. Walter is given the day off by the
departmental psychologist who evaluates him following his dog bite.
He uses the day to continue reading the book. Chapter 2: Fingerling
recounts his childhood. His father wants him to follow in his
accounting business but Fingerling wants to be a detective. On his
eighth birthday he finds the lady next door dead on her bed, wrists
slit. Though the coroner rules it suicide, Fingerling imagines a
neighborhood stalker has taken her life. Walter says that his mother
died on his eighth birthday and marvels at the coincidence. That
night in bed, Walter has his first hallucination: the shadow of a man
(himself) with a knife.
February 5. Walter is reading the book
in a park. Chapter 5: Fingerling meets the Suicide Blond. She's
currently trying on a noose but she's obviously slit her wrists in
the past. Fingerling talks her down from her impromptu gallows and
learns her story. It is a story of the number 23 and of madness.
"Pink is my favorite color. Do you know what pink is? Red 27,
white 65 - 65 plus 27, 92 - 'Pink' has four letters - 92 divided by
four, twenty-fucking-three!" After Fingerling leaves her
apartment, the Suicide Blonde leaps out a window. Later, Fingerling
and Fabrizia have wild sex in the Suicide Blond's apartment. It's
Fabrizia's idea. At the house, Walter points out to Agatha and Robin
the parallels between Fingerling and himself. He points out the 23s
in his name, birth date, driver's license, Social Security number,
"everything!" Chapter 7: Fingerling binds Fabrizia to a bed
and, at her urging, pretends he has a knife at her throat. She loves
it. They have more wild sex. In the middle of the night Walter sees
more murderous shadows. Then he gets out of bed and counts Agatha's
shoes.
February 6. In the morning, Agatha covers Walter as he
sleeps on the couch. He's been reading all night, finding more 23s in
his life. She finds writing all over his arms and calls Isaac. When
he wakes, Walter goes to visit the psychology professor. Isaac
reassures Walter, "This is magical thinking, non-scientific
causal reasoning. Now you're... you're looking for 23 so you're
finding it." Walter is unconvinced. Fingerling sees Miles in his
office and the police psychologist puts him on "emotional
leave". Without active duty and without his gun, Fingerling is
no longer sexually appealing to Fabrizia. She begins an
in-plain-sight affair with Miles that humiliates Fingerling. He
imagines himself murdering Miles. As he thinks about Miles, the
fictional character becomes the real-life Isaac and Walter's book
fantasy and his life begin to merge. He sees "23"
everywhere as he walks the streets. When he gets to Agatha's shop and
sees her talking with Isaac, his paranoia blossoms. Chapter 21: Miles
has seduced Fabrizia. Fingerling stumbles across them having sex in
the woods. That night Walter wakes with a start and looks at the
clock. It reads 11:12. He discovers that he's stabbed Agatha in her
sleep. Then he wakes with a start. He's relieved, it was just a bad
dream. He looks at the clock. It reads 11:12. Shaken by déja vu, he
impulsively leaves the house and drives to the King Edward Hotel for
the night. He has left a note: "Ag, I don't want you to be
worried. I just need one night to clear my head. Please don't give up
on me." He doesn't know why he's at the King Edward. He insists
on room 23.
February 7. In the hotel room Walter continues
reading the book. Chapter 22: Fabrizia has been murdered. Miles finds
her body. He absentmindedly picks up the knife. Later, he is led away
in a police car as Fingerling flees the scene. Fingerling's face is
spotted with Fabrizia's blood. Back at the hotel, Fingerling takes
the final step into madness: he steps out onto the balcony. The book
abruptly ends. Walter is perplexed. Then he hears a dog bark. It's
Ned. He follows the dog to the graveyard once again, to the grave of
Laura Tollins. Walter is beginning to put the pieces together. He
returns home with newspaper clippings about Laura's murder and about
the fate of Kyle Flinch. He's convinced that Flinch is Topsy Kretts,
that the book is actually Flinch's confession.
February 8.
Walter confronts Flinch in prison. The man admits to having been
Laura's lover but denies having killed her and denies having written
the book. Walter believes him because of his apparent sincerity and
because the letters of his name do not sum to 23. Robin has an idea
for how to flush out Topsy Kretts. That evening, Walter sends 23
empty boxes to the post box that Robin found in the back of the book.
That night in bed Agatha tells Walter, "You wouldn't hurt
anyone, ever." "How do you know?" he
replies.
February 9. Walter, Agatha, and Robin stake out Topsy
Kretts's post box. Dr. Sirius Leary (Bud
Cort) shows up
to claim the boxes, but before Walter can question him, Leary slits
his own throat. Leary carries a secret mystery (Walter's book) and a
key to that mystery (the number 23) that he didn't know how to use
and that has driven him insane. Agatha insists that Walter and Robin
go home. Before he dies, Leary tells Agatha of an institute. She
finds an identification card in his pocket. He was on the staff of
Nathaniel's Institute, Psychiatric Care Facility. That night, after
she phones home and denies to Walter that Leary said anything, Agatha
goes to the now-closed and abandoned mental hospital. She finds
records indicating that Walter had been a patient there and she also
finds a draft of the book with Walter's name in place of "Topsy
Kretts" just as the form of a man approaches. Meanwhile, by
taking every 23rd word on every 23rd page, Walter decodes a message:
"Visit Casanova Spark dig beneath the steps too Heaven I warn
you hell is waiting sparrow man". He leaves a note for Agatha,
then he and Robin leave for the base of the Steps to Heaven - of
course, there are 23 steps - located in Casanova's Park. At the park,
Walter and Robin dig and uncover a skeleton. Just as they leave to
fetch the cops, the sound of a mysterious person is heard approaching
what must be Laura's grave. When the cops get there, her skeleton is
gone. The cops dismiss Walter's and Robin's insistent assertions that
a skeleton was found and is now missing. As the bewildered cops
leave, Agatha and Isaac arrive.
The Crisis. As Walter, Agatha,
and Robin drive home, Walter sees dirt in Agatha's fingernails. It
was Isaac's form that Agatha saw in the ruin of a hospital. It was
Isaac and Agatha who moved Laura's skeleton. Once home Walter claims
that Agatha wrote the book to make it look like he wrote it. Then he
accuses Agatha and Isaac of being in conspiracy to pin him with
Laura's murder. He flees.
February 10. Walter returns to room
23 of the King Edward Hotel. While bolts of recollection flash
through his mind, Walter tears down the crumbling wallpaper and finds
the 23rd chapter beneath. Chapter 23: "You can call me
Fingerling, but my real name is Walter, Walter Paul Sparrow."
True recollection now floods Walter's brain. Recollection of his
mother's suicide followed by his father's suicide. Recollection of
his foster homes and of college and Laura Tollis, all the while
pursued and tortured by the number 23. Recollection of betrayal, of
Laura in the woods having sex with her professor, Kyle Flinch.
Recollection of her rejection when he tried to save her from the
number. Recollection of killing her and burying her beneath the Steps
to Heaven. Recollection of Flinch's arrest. Recollection of the King
Edward Hotel, room 23, and the suicide note that turned into a book.
Recollection of obsession, insanity. Recollection of leaping out of
the window and of his hospitalization.
Resolution. After
Agatha pledges her love and loyalty over Walter's protestations that
she can't love a killer, he flees the King Edward Hotel. On the
street he flirts with suicide but his son's calls pull him back.
Later, as he awaits sentencing for the murder of Laura Tollis, Walter
contemplates that not all may be lost, that he's not the same man who
wrote the book, and that he may qualify for early parole and reunion
with his family.
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