lost in its own baroque designs

Rating: 2/10 (5 February 2009)

This is the usual "happy guy who discovers he's the true author of his new, favorite book which is really an epic confession describing how he killed his previous girlfriend" story we've seen countless times before. The movie eats up so much time visualizing the damned book that it will obviously turn out to be a convoluted back-story. Gee what a surprise ...it turns out to be a convoluted back-story.
I can't wait for the era in which film-makers learn that a little production design goes a long way, and that design is still no substitute for a worthy script. Number 23 never accidentally veers towards human psychology or natural behavior of any sort, in deference to reverse engineering the entire story backwards from its zowie (not so zowie) twist ending, which makes the foreground an afterthought; and it's complete obedience to the production design gods. Writer Fernley Phillips (!) can not steer this idea to a good movie. It's just another overwrought consumable. If you're hoping to see yet another breathy, sincere narrator explain his way through over-produced imagery, this is for you. I know I really craved another closeup of a clock with its second-hand ticking ominously. 23 is shockingly amateurish.
This is a companion piece to "The Nines" which, despite reviews to the contrary, is actually crappier. As limp as 23 is, it represents a step up for atrocious movie director Joel Schumacher.