Spiraling into a dark obsession with the number 23, Walter Sparrow twists his once idyllic life into an inferno of psychological torture that could possibly lead to his death as well as the deaths of his loved ones. Spurred on by a mysterious novel, The Number 23, that he doesn’t dare put down, Walter is forced to unlock the secrets of his past before he can continue his future with his wife, Agatha, and teenage son, Robin. The novel, given to Walter by Agatha as a birthday gift, depicts a chilling murder mystery that seems to mirror Walter’s life in dark and uncontrollable ways.

The life of the book’s main character, a brooding detective named Fingerling, is filled with moments that echo Walter’s own history. As the world of the book starts to come alive, Walter becomes infected by the most frightening and evocative part of it: Fingerling’s obsession with the hidden power of the number 23. This obsession permeates the book and begins to control Walter. He sees the number everywhere in his own life and becomes convinced that he is damned to commit the same horrific crime as Fingerling--murder. Nightmarish fantasies come to haunt Walter, ones that portend terrible fates for his wife as well as family friend Isaac French, placing him on a desperate quest to understand the mysteries of the book. If he can unlock the power behind the number 23, he may be able to change his future.

The Number 23 was very much like a street hawker selling a cheap knock-off Rolex on the street corner. The fake Rolex works, it can tell time and its flashy but it's not really a Rolex. The Number 23 has all the elements to be a great thriller; the next trippy movie that draws you in and unfolds in one twist after another but in the end it’s just a cheap knock-off and not the real thing. The suspense is there at it works at time it draws you in but in the end it’s timing is off, it falters every now and then and loses its way and the movie flounders. The obsession continues as the audience waits for the punchline, the character becomes more and manic as you wait to find out the meaning of the number 23 but it takes to long to get there, it takes too long to reveal its secret and it loses it’s suspense along the way and it’s audience with it. The story is there, its intriguing, it’s interesting and it has all the elements to be the real thing but in the end its just another cheap rip-off trying to recreate another movie like Seven or Pi.

I think the fault of the movie not being it’s potential falls in the lap of Joel Schumacher who never really entirely captured the story or the pacing to make the movie more than just mediocre. Joel Schumacher is a very hit and miss director to begin with and his style lends more towards an action movie that of a suspense thriller where the timing and the direction has to be just right or you lose your audience. He also doesn’t have the feel for that dark drama that the Number 23 needed to be, he couldn’t keep the movie mired in the shadows, he couldn’t string you along until that final moment when all the puzzle pieces fall into place and you the story makes sense. All the elements were there and in the hands of a director more skillful and suited to this kind of movie the Number 23 might have been fantastic. As it stands though it’s one of those movies that didn’t live up to his potential and while good at times and suspenseful at other times the movie overall is very mediocre.

I like Jim Carrey as a dramatic actor, I think the days of the rubber-faced funny man are long gone and am glad he has been able to stretch his legs a little but this movie and this role just weren’t suited for him. He can’t seem to escape his own shadow throughout the movie, he can’t hold that serious, dark and troubled persona the entire time, the character cracks and you can see the funny man in between those cracks. The movie was better suited for a brooding, introspective type of actor like Christian Bale and his turn in the manic Machinist. And of course they surround him with actors like Virginia Madsen that do nothing to really add to the story, do nothing to fuel the fire of the character. I remember Truman Show when his fake wife cracks under the strain of Carrey’s more erratic behavior that’s what the Number 23 needed, that drama, that strain to add to the obsession, the energy of the film and Madsen just doesn’t have it. The film had potential it was just mismanaged and mishandled as is clearly a cheap knock-off.

Grade: C