The Number 23

The Number 23 is a 2007 American psychological thriller film directed by Joel Schumacher. The film starred Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Danny Huston and Logan Lerman. It was subsequently released on DVD on July 24, 2007 (23 July in the UK), and premiered on HBO on Saturday April 19, 2008. The plot involves Walter Sparrow and his obsession with the 23 enigma, an esoteric belief that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some permutation of the number 23, or a number related to 23. This is the second film to pair Schumacher and Carrey, the first being Batman Forever. This is Carrey's first suspense thriller.

---

Tropes:

• Acting for Two: Aside from the obvious, there's Virgina Madsen (who plays both Walter's wife and Fingerling's girlfriend, Fabrizia), Danny Huston (as Issac French and Dr. Miles Phoenix) and Lynn Collins (who plays the "Suicide Blonde", the suicidal neighbor Mrs. Dobkins, and Young Fingerling's mother).
• Arc Number: Guess.
• Bittersweet Ending: Sure, the murder mystery was solved, and the man wrongfully imprisoned for it was set free. But Walter had turned himself in to police, and was awaiting sentencing for criminal homicide.

Walter Sparrow: Maybe it's not the happiest of endings, but it's the right one. Some day I'll be up for parole, and we can go on living our lives. It's only a matter of time. Of course, time is just a counting system. Numbers with meaning attached to them...isn't it?

• The Call Knows Where You Live
• Driven to Suicide: The Suicide Blonde, Widow Dobkins, Walter's Father, and Walter himself. Twice. (The first time, he survives his attempt; the second time, he stops because he sees his son watching him.
• For Want of a Nail: Walter laments this at the beginning of the film: if he hadn't agreed to take his wife's cake to the holiday office party, the dispatcher Sybil wouldn't have drunkenly thrown herself at him; if he hadn't turned down Sybil's advances so harshly, she wouldn't have been angry at him the next day and sent him on another call just as his shift ended; if he hadn't been sent on that last call, he wouldn't have been late to meet his wife Agatha; if hadn't made Agatha wait, she wouldn't have had time to browse in the used bookstore — and wouldn't have found that copy of The Number 23.
• Hair of Gold: The Suicide Blonde, Mrs. Dobkins, and Fingerling's mother. (Hardly surprising, as they're all portrayed by the same actress.)
  • Also, Walter's wife Agatha.
• Hell Hound: Ned's a fairly ordinary dog, but still fits the "guardian" flavor of this trope rather well.
• Hereditary Curse
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Both Lauren Tollins and the fictional Fabrizia have a fetish for violence and like to roleplay with knives. Fabrizia even has Fingerling take her to an apartment where a woman killed herself so they can have sex.
• Playing Against Type: Jim Carrey stars as a tragic character, rather than the comedic ones he was known for.
• Meaningful Name: Numerous examples--many of them Lampshaded:
  • Ned, the black and white bulldog who watches over Lauren Tollin's grave, was so-named because of his habit of "guarding" the dead.
  • The doctor at the mental hospital who helped rehabilitate Walter (and later went mad) is named "Sirius Leary", which (when reversed) roughly means "Be Careful of the Dog" — an obvious reference to Ned, who both physically attacks Walter and points him toward his past crime.
• Number of the Beast: Issac French explains that number 23 is regarded as evil because 2 divided by 3 results in .666.
• Sanity Slippage: The number itself is implied to cause this, as "victims" become obsessed with the numerical patterns in their own lives and the world around them.
• Sue Donym: The titular book is written by "Topsy Kretts".
• Twist Ending: The author who wrote the book "The Number 23" is Walter himself.