Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Damnit! I fucking hate it when this happens. You know what I’m talking about. You’re in the middle of watching this pretty badass little film, a film that by all accounts is exceeding your every expectation. It’s cool, stylish, well acted, fairly original…and then. The Third act twist. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Way ahead of myself.
Let’s go back a decade and a half. The internet wasn’t really available to the general populace yet and most of us computer fiends were stuck logging into BBS’s on dedicated personal computers that talked to other computers a couple times a day on what was called the WWIV network. E-mail to other BBS’s sometimes took days and was measured in Hops. Any bit of esoterica was shoddily cobbled together and not readily available. That meant if you wanted something cool, something counter culture, then there was only one place to get it. A Headshop.
There - hidden among the underground comix, the erotic greeting cards, the meerschaum and the “water” pipes - was a locked bookcase. Inside was the Waldenbooks of the Damned. The Anarchist Cookbook, The Book of the Subgenius, The Little Red Book, back issues of 2600, High Weirdness by Mail, High Priest and pretty much the complete works of one Robert Anton Wilson –the secret king (or Pope, Praise Bob!) of Counterculture.
So in other words, what I’m saying is in that day and age, if you were a hipster wannabe much like I was, you read Wilson. A lot.
Now the thing about Wilson was that he was one of the founding members of the Discordians – and lived out his will to sew discord through his writing. He wrote not only fiction, but non-fiction books that combined history, philosophy, conspiracy theory and utter bullshit he and his buddies cooked up into one, coherent universe so inextricably tied together that it began to become difficult telling what really existed before Wilson and his cronies - and what they were chuckling about behind our backs. Hell, one need only spend an evening reading his encyclopedic Everything is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults and Cover-Ups to see just how blatantly he blends reality with his own fiction. And it really messes with your head.
Enter 23 theory, one of Wilson’s favorite topics. As much as it was one of his fun toys, many have played around with it or referenced it in some way. Some serious, some not. Hell, any Lost fans out there? You probably know where the 42 came from. Wilson is where they got the 23. Well, there were a hell of a lot of us Counterculture hipster wannabes out there – and now one of them wrote a script.
The Number 23 is what happens when someone takes one of the ideas of the Counterculture, gives it a trippy, edgy film treatment – but then tarts it up as a Hollywood thriller and ultimately sells out the premise for a big twist ending that will be the line of demarcation as to your love or disappointment with this film. Hell, anyone that knows what Charlie Kaufman was openly mocking and deconstructing in Adaptation will roll their eyes as they find much of that here. Which is really a shame – because the first two acts of this film are really quite good. Damn good.
Jim Carrey gives another of his great Seriously, I do more than talk out of my ass and chomp my teeth performances – one of his normal guy on the verge of a complete breakdown roles. If there’s anything in this film that works all the way through, it’s him, even when he’s in his Novel/dreamworld Colin Farrell trenchcoat scenes – when Cool is just the last thing you’d expect Carrey to be able to pull off.
In fact those scenes inside the novel are some of the best in the film. They’re cliché, trite and overdone – just like the terrible detective novel they’re supposed to be, and yet you become engrossed. Schumacher does an excellent job shooting this world with the surreal quality it needs – while nailing the fevered obsession that people seem to have for the number 23. And for those already familiar with 23 theory, there’s a lot to have fun with here, complete with several subtle nods to the writing of Wilson – never blatant enough to ask “Do ya get it? Do ya get it?” but certainly there with the occasional wink for those familiar.
Unfortunately, no matter what they get right, the film begins to peter out as it starts to remind you that this is a THRILLER and not cerebral dark fantasy film. Fingers start pointing in the usual “Who’s the killer” sort of way and you try to sort out all the red herrings as the film slowly loses more and more steam until the big reveal…Chapter 23...
…which just plain fucking blows. You’re like what, really? That’s what’s really going on? and then you’re given what seems like 23 minutes of explanation as to exactly how it all actually works. But the wind is taken right out of your sails. Sure, while you’re watching it it seems to work and then is followed up by a rather unconventional ending. But it just fails to meet the potential that the first two acts seem to promise. And that disappointment is nothing compared to the indignation of the ride home as you start putting together the fragments, asking the usual “So how did this actually work” questions only to realize Wait just one god damned second! That doesn’t make ANY fucking sense! And it doesn’t. This movie straddles the line between real and the supernatural – but not in a way that works when all is said and done – meanwhile, the little details, the minutia of it all, don’t add up.
And yeah, sure, sometimes that’s okay. But it’s not okay in a film pretending to be this intelligent. I’m all for the suspension of disblief, but this wants to be Fight Club or Memento or The Usual Suspects. Instead it’s more along the lines of Matchstick Men.
Not everyone’s gonna have a problem with the ending. But a lot of folks will, especially those who like to work the films out in their head once the credits have rolled. Because while the film might be telling you 4 + 19 adds up to 23 – it doesn’t. Not here at least. This is one of those films I really, really want to like, but it just won’t let me. It really did have a ton of potential. And I’m not talking about potential from the source material – potential from what the film delivers early on.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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