The Number 23

2007 mystery thriller

Rating: 8/20

Plot: A dogcatcher becomes obsessed with the number 23 after finding a book that seems to be based on his life.

I can't believe this is from the director who brought us D.C. Cab.

After being intrigued by Jim Carrey in that Jim and Andy documentary, I thought I'd give a Carrey movie I've never seen a spin. I can't remember why I ignored this one right around the time I started this blog. I have an interest in arithmomania, and the premise of this one does seem kind of interesting on paper. However, I can't think of a worse performance that I've seen from a big-name acting, one who made (of course) 23 million dollars for this movie. Carrey's performance is wildly uneven, ranging from way too goofy to preposterously serious. He sort of plays two roles, the guy reading the book and slowly losing his mind and the detective character in the book, and he doesn't do either one of them very well at all. He also narrates--very poorly--and reads from the book like it's the most serious acting that has ever been done on film before. It's really embarrassing.

The twists and turns in this one work as twists and turns mostly because they don't make much sense. Things get very dark, and then they get darker, but you never really take anything seriously because the director of Batman and Robin made this and you expect the main character to bend over and start performing a ventriloquist act with his ass at any moment.

Right at the beginning, Carrey starts making a weird noise at a dog because he's "bored." I should have taken that for a bad sign right there. I didn't, watched this entire ugly movie, and am thinking about writing a letter to Joel Schumacher and demanding he pay me two dollars even though I didn't pay anything to see this movie. He owes me though.