An interesting concept... and that's about it!

Rating: 6/10 (6 December 2007)

From the director of such cult classics as "The Lost Boys, Flatliners, Falling Down" and such huge flops as "Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Phone Booth", this film could go one of two ways, and it did the latter! In brief, the film tells of one mans obsession with the number 23 after the purchase of a book. It is an interesting concept, much in the same way as Phone Booth is, but it fails to live up to anything but that "an interesting concept".
The film reads as a question on the main characters sanity and whether the number 23 can ensnare and consume people. It can do, and this evident in the fact that if you look hard enough you will find it for example the Number 23 is Joel Schumacher's 23rd project as director, the DVD has 23 chapters and the main character, Walter Sparrow, had an obsession with the saxophone. The saxophone, of course, has 23 keys. Yes, that's right; the obsessions in the film are tenuous to say the least and unfortunately this is an issue which is never really addressed.
The film (with Schumacher on board) is stylish of course, but I couldn't help thinking that I wish this film had a lower budget and was released on the European circuit where I feel it would have favoured much better. The film was too polished, it needed to be grittier, dirtier, more consuming and interesting (but on a deeper level).
Psychological thrillers are tough and are one of the few genres that produce masterpieces so rarely, they are often ridden with a cliché narrative which usually culminates in a twist, and this film is no different and given the films mediocre script the vast majority of audiences will see it coming which leaves the film with a weak ending. It is unfortunate as I would have liked to have witnessed a clever film; instead I've seen a good director make another hash of an interesting concept!