"Fatal Number 23" is a 2007 film. First of all, the picture is interesting in that it is the first thriller among serious films of the famous American comedian Jim Carrey. From this article you can find out the plot, cast, reviews and description of the movie "Fatal Number 23".
Plot of the film
The action of the picture takes place around a certain Walter Sparrow - a modest family man working in the service of trapping stray animals. The life of this, at first glance, ordinary person changes dramatically when on his birthday he receives a book from his wife as a gift entitled "Number 23".
This mysterious novel tells of a terrible murder, but during the reading, Walter gets the impression that the book was written about him - he found so many coincidences with his own life in it.
The protagonist of the novel - the gloomy detective Fingerling - committed a terrible crime, being influenced by the mysterious and fateful number 23. As he read, Sparrow began to notice that those few events of the book that did not coincide with his life, now occurred in real time. The man sees that he is surrounded by the number 23 everywhere, which means that he also has to commit a murder, like the fictional detective Fingerling.
In search of a clue to the mystical power of this number, the protagonist stumbles upon the grave of Laura Tollins, a girl who went missing at the age of 23.
A local priest informs Walter that her body was never found and that this grave is empty, and Kyle Finch, suspected of her murder, has been in prison for 15 years. At home, Walter told his wife and son about his guesses. In his opinion, the author of the book is Finch, and the plot is his secret confession in the murder of Laura. He even visits him in prison, but after talking with the prisoner, he realizes that Finch is innocent.
Walter’s son Robin is also seriously interested in mystery - at the end of the book he finds the hidden address of the author or publisher. Having discussed this with each other, Sparrow decides to send 23 empty parcels to this address, in order to then track down the one who receives them.
At the post office they see an old man who, having noticed Walter, is very scared and tries to run away, but Sparrow catches up with him. In a fit of panic, the old man cuts his throat. Walter leaves with his son, and Agatha, his wife, remains with a dying old man who manages to inform her about Dr. Nathaniel’s clinic. According to him, it is in this institution that she will be able to find out the truth about what is happening.
At this time, Walter and Robin decide to allocate every 23 word of the book and, thus, receive a coherent logical text - a secret message directing to the "stairway to heaven" in Casanova Park. Having gone there, father and son Sparrow found a buried human skeleton, which disappeared without a trace while they called the police.
In confusion, they return home, where Walter discovers the earth in the hands of Agatha - he concludes that his wife watched them and hid the skeleton, which means she wrote the book and killed the girl. But Agatha, who had already visited the clinic, about which the old man spoke, shows her husband a draft of a book with his signature and his other things found in the clinic of Dr. Nathaniel.
The author of the book is Walter Sparrow himself! In a state of shock, a man runs away from home - his legs take him to a hotel nearby, where he rents the 23rd room and there, under the wallpaper, finds the missing 23rd chapter of the novel.
After reading this manuscript, the main character remembers everything: fifteen years ago he was in love with Laura Tollins, they met, but soon the girl left him. Her new lover was Kyle Finch. Losing his head, Walter killed her with a knife and buried her in the park of Casanova. He brought the murder weapon to her house, and Kyle Finch, without suspecting anything, touched the knife, entering the empty house of his girlfriend, and only for this reason was accused of her murder.
Walter Sparrow's father committed suicide by writing the number 23 in a suicide note - since then, Walter has seen him everywhere, which brought him to crime. Killing Laura, he locked himself in the same issue, where he wrote the fateful book, and then hid the last chapter behind the wallpaper and jumped out of the window.
As a result, he survived, but severely damaged his memory, having suffered a head injury. Restoring in the clinic of Dr. Nathaniel, he did not remember anything from the last terrible events of his life. After leaving the hospital, Walter married Agatha and began a normal life. The old man, whose address Robin found in the book, was one of the doctors of the clinic - he secretly appropriated the manuscript, and then published without the author's instructions.
Realizing that he is a murderer, Walter, thanks to the support of his family, confesses to the crime to free the innocent Kyle Finch.
The main ideas and super-tasks of the plot
The 2007 movie “Fatal Number 23” is a classic thriller. Pictures from this genre differ from ordinary horror films in that their goal is not just to scare the viewer, but to force them to look at situations that could happen to any person from the side and warn them.
It is worth noting that the choice of 23 is not accidental - along with such numbers as 7, 8 and 13, some prejudices are associated with it. The "collect" events related to the number 23, began the cult American writer William Burroughs. In the 60s, he met a certain captain named Clark, boasting that he had never crashed in 23 years of sailing.
On the same day, Burroughs found out that Clark's ship sank, and the whole crew, including the boastful captain, was killed. But this did not end there: on the evening of the same day the writer heard on the radio about the plane crash in Florida - believe it or not, the flight number was 23, and the commander’s last name was Clark.
From the moment William Burroughs widely published the strange events he had collected, one way or another connected with the number 23, a lot of people became committed to the theory of “Mysticism of the 23s”.
But if everything is clear with the choice of number, then what did the director of the movie "Fatal Number 23" Joel Schumacher want to convey to the audience? The allegorical subtext is most clearly seen in a clear division of the life of the protagonist before acquaintance with the mysterious book and after.
Of course, few of the audience will have murder or another terrible crime, but many tend to attach too much importance to the past, and in most cases the past gradually poisones and then completely destroys the present.
That is precisely what, in an allegorical sense, happened to Walter Sparrow - the past, into which he had to return, intervened in his quiet family life and turned everything upside down in it.
In a narrower sense, another idea can be singled out - just for those who have some kind of stone on their souls, but they try to suppress their conscience and live with it. Despite the fact that the main character did not intentionally hide his crime, but in fact forgot about it as a result of a head injury, the justice in the person of the book itself found him, and justice triumphed. Better late than never.
Another super-objective of the plot could be a warning for viewers who tend to attach too much importance to numbers, signs, superstitions and prejudices. Perhaps someone after watching the movie "Fatal Number 23" will respond to the idea that this could lead to mania, and it, in turn, will have very bad consequences.
Creature
The idea to create a similar film came to Joel Schumacher back in 2003, while working on the film The Phantom of the Opera. Many mysterious elements of this grandiose musical picture made him want to shoot a detective thriller connected with mysticism. But not with ghosts and sorcerers, but with something closer to each person.
In the course of reflection, superstition and numbers came to mind, since their action always leaves a mystery - whether they really have a higher power, or the psychology of people makes them mystical.
The script was written by a little-known author, Fearnley Phillips, and the producers were Trip Vinson and Bo Flynn. Filming began on January 16, 2006, the budget of the tape amounted to $ 30 million.
Jim Carrey himself proposed his candidacy for the main role, since he is also a supporter of the theory of the mysticism of the number 23.
List of movie main characters
Reviews of the "Fatal Number 23" the most positive quality of the picture called its characters. There were few of them, but each was significant and fully disclosed both from the plot side and from the acting side:
- Walter Paul Sparrow (also the hero of his own book under the pseudonym Fingerling) is a real family man, a killer in the past, on both sides of his life obsessed with the symbols of the number 23 and losing his mind on this ground.
- Agatha Pink Sparrow - the wife of the protagonist, a classic movie spouse, sweet and pretty, but at the right time capable of decisive and bold actions.
- Robin Sparrow - the son of the protagonist, a teenager, loves parents and tries to help them solve the riddle of the book.
- Laura Tollins - a girl from the past of Walter, who became his victim.
- Kyle Finch is a prisoner suspected of committing a crime by Walter, the last boyfriend of Laura.
- Isaac French (aka Dr. Miles Phoenix) - it was he who told Walter about the properties of the number 23.
Leading Actors
As mentioned above, the role of the protagonist Walter Sparrow played Jim Carrey. This is not the first dramatic role of the famous comedian, but the first such role in the thriller. The role of his wife, as well as the role of a girl from a book called Fabrizia, was performed by the American actress Virginia Madsen - the sister of the famous actor Michael Madsen. The role of the son of the Sparrow spouses - Robin - went to Lerman Logan, who had previously performed the main characters of the paintings "What Women Want", "Strong Woman" and "Butterfly Effect" in childhood.
Russian dubbing
For an unknown reason, the movie "Fatal Number 23" in Russian was dubbed only with the original English track preserved. Professional full dubbing to this day does not exist. On the Web, the film can be seen with a two-voice voice acting - one male voice and one female.
Soundtrack
A separate advantage of the film can be considered excellent musical accompaniment, which does not stand out for a second from the general atmosphere of the film. The composer of the picture was Harry Gregson-Williams, known for his musical works in films and cartoons, such as "Spy Kids", "Shrek", "The Chronicles of Narnia" and many others. All songs were released on the official CD.
Interesting Facts
- "Fatal number 23" was the twenty-third work in the filmography of Joel Schumacher.
- The film premiered in the USA, Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland and Canada on February 23, in Brazil, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden on March 23, in Italy on April 23, and in Japan on November 23. Other countries decided not to maintain this connection, so as not to scare away superstitious people.
- In the Russian box office, the word "fatal" was added to the original name "Number Twenty-Three" - thus it became exactly 23 letters.
Nomination for Golden Raspberries
Despite the positive audience reviews of the movie "Fatal Number 23", the film received only one adult nomination, and the negative one: Jim Carrey almost won the "Raspberry" for the worst male role.
Luckily for him, this year Eddie Murphy received the award for his role in the comedy "Tricks of the Norbith." Actors Lerman Logan and Paul Butcher (the role of Walter in childhood) were nominated for the Teens Choice Awards, but did not receive awards.
Rating
Reviews of the movie "Fatal Number 23" from 2007 to the present have earned him only 8% positive on the Rotten Tomatoes website. On the Kinopoisk website, the rating of film critics is 100% positive, as it is based on just one professional review.
Responses to the "Fatal number 23" from ordinary users of the site account for 83.7% of the approval: out of 134 reviews, 95 are positive, 12 are negative and 27 are neutral.
The opinion of critics
Among the world reviews of the "Fatal Number 23" negative prevail. Professional critics of the Rotten Tomatoes website called Jim Carrey's character “ominous, pretended and presumptuous,” and the film itself “awkward, unconscious, and confused.”
The Russian-language review of "Fatal Number 23" in 2007, published by Kommersant Weekend, called the painting very beautiful and somewhat similar to David Fincher’s Seven tape.
The opinion of the audience
Spectators leaving positive reviews for “Fatal Number 23” from 2007 to the present mainly list the same positive aspects of the film. This is an unplanarity of the plot, the acting game of Jim Carrey, the philosophical riddle of the number 23 and instructive morality.
Many also noted the pleasant idea of family support - unlike many thrillers in which families fall apart during strange or terrible events.
The opinion of those who left about “Fatal Number 23” is negative, the exact opposite: they call the plot trivial and battered, the ending predictable, and Kerry’s game mediocre. There can be only one conclusion from this - everyone should watch the film on their own, and then make up their own opinion about it.