Ill-Informed Gadfly

Remember “The Three”? In “Adaptation,” tortured intellectual screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s happy-go-lucky brother, Donald, takes a hack screenwriting class and cooks up a schlocky thriller in which a serial killer, his next victim and the cop chasing him are all the same person — a victim of multiple-personality disorder. At times I’ve found myself wishing “The Three” would actually get made — but only by talented filmmakers with the proper ironic sensibility. Especially now that I’ve seen a movie with a similar premise, played completely straight and seemingly unaware of its ludicrousness. Even the title is close: “The Number 23.” This laughable Jim Carrey vehicle tries to sell us on an innocuous prime number as the root of all evil, but what it really thinks will blow our minds is, of course, the twist — quite possibly the lamest and most amateurish I’ve ever seen. It really does recall Donald Kaufman’s pitch for “The Three” — except Carrey, screenwriter Fernley Phillips and director Joel Schumacher seem to think their idea is really, really edgy and cool. Donald knew he was ripping off every psychological thriller ever made. “The Number 23″ isn’t even competent enough to be called hackwork.