Most people know that I am a huge Jim Carrey fan. I try to catch all of his movies and I have seen several of them multiple times. My favourites 11 have been chronicles in my previous blog here. There is just a couple that I have not seen of his and I plan on getting them on dvd if possible, though I found out two days ago that those movies are also slated to be shown on cable next month. So perhaps I shall wait instead. The latest movie to be released is the thriller The Number 23, which stars Carrey in a more dramatic role than he is used to. The film also stars Virginia Madsen (as Carrey’s wife) & Rhona Mitra and is directed by Joel Schumacher. It represents an obsession with the number 23 (I suppose they titled it that instead of just ’23’ to avoid confusion with the hit tv series ’24’) which can be found all throughout our lives.
Examples frequently cited include that each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to the DNA of a child, as well as that the Mayans believed the world will end on Dec. 23, 2012 — 20 plus one, plus two, is 23. Schumacher realized The Number 23 would be his 23rd film. Or that the letters in Carrey and Madsen’s first and last names add up to 23, as do the combined letters in Schumacher’s and Carrey’s. Jim’s character Walter, comes across such ‘relevant’ things like Kurt Cobain’s date of birth and death and the number of times Caesar was stabbed and the time and day of birth and numbers on his ID’s all come to the number 23. The paranoia will tend to rub on audience members, suddenly seeing ’23’ wherever they go. And ofcourse, The Number 23 began filming on January 23, 2006 & opens in theaters on February 23rd, 2007.
The world spins on an axis of 23 degrees. Kurt Cobain was born in 1967 and died in 1994. 1+9+6+7=23 and 1+9+9+4=23. The invasion of Iraq began on 3/20, 2003 at 2:30. The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 4:19 – 4+19=23. The Titanic sank the morning of April 15th, 1912 (4 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 9 + 1 + 2 = 23). The Mayans believed the world will end on December 23, 2012 (20 + 1 + 2 = 23). In humans, the 23rd chromosome determines gender. It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate throughout the entire body. Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to the DNA of a child.
Immediately when I was reading it, I realized something. 1976 -> 1+9+7+6=23 – that’s the year I was born!
