23: 'A story of Obsession'

Rating: Null/10 (19 August 2011)

This movie got terrible, terrible reviews, at least where I live, and it all made me even more intrigued to watch it than I would be over any other thriller/mystery movie. After watching it, I am rating it 7/10, although I have to admit it is quite flawed, but in a very interesting, almost fascinating way.
Walter Sparrow is a regular family man, until his wife presents him with a mysterious novel written by one Topsy Kretts, which is entitled "The number 23: a story of obsession". Sparrow becomes effectively obsessed with the story told in it: apparently an autobiography of some mystery person who narrates his childhood, how he became a detective, and the onset and further consequences of his obsession with number 23, which he claims is "persecuting" him. Sparrow's life becomes dominated by his new obsession.
The theme about the doom brought about by number 23 is not as well done as I'd hoped for, which makes it -to me- become an uninteresting anecdote or background motive. The protagonist actually suffers from this obsession and is afraid of the number, somehow, but the movie never succeeds at making us a participant of this feeling of impending doom. (In fact, the movie is quite funny at times.) For me, this is a major flaw in the movie.
Then, it becomes something entirely different: a mysterious film, certainly, where we can follow the protagonist in his torment and his quest to get rid of it, in which he tries different possible solutions while he tries to figure out the identity of the mysterious writer. The movie can be watched as a kind of drama with supernatural or mysterious elements, and I believe that if you watch it from this perspective, you're more likely to enjoy it and find worthwhile qualities in it. Ultimately, I feel that number 23 and its mystical story are the proverbial McGuffin asking us to focus on the character of Walter Sparrow and his story, although this purpose is probably not made clear enough, and the movie seems so flawed because of that.
There are more reasons that make this movie better than average, and they are, first, Jim Carrey's good performance; second, the Lynch-esque, dream-like parts; and, finally, how pretty the film is to look at, with an awesome use of color.