"The Number 23"  Interesting Concept but Lackluster Result

Rating: 5/10 (3 March 2007)

I had heard terrible things about this movie before watching it so luckily I went into the viewing with low expectations. While it wasn't as bad as some people were making it out to be, it was nothing special either. What boggled my mind is that there was actually potential to make a quality film here but it wasn't utilized. This was stupid since there's so many historical experiences and anecdotes that deal with the number 23 theory. The historic ones make sense but the formulas conjured up for the movie were absolutely ridiculous. They completely overlooked any real laws of mathematics and apparently the theorist could apply any rule he wanted to over and over again to obtain the results he was looking for.
However there was some good to this disappointing feature. I liked how a main concept was that an obsessive person could formulate anything because they'll keep going until they see what they want to see. This essentially shows that most conspiracy theories have probably came to being through acts of compulsion and really aren't based off of concrete facts. The twist ending was also fairly original but due to the heavy saturation of twist endings audiences have been bombarded with these past five years, it didn't really have much of an effect on me. As for acting, Jim Carrey was very impressive and he really carried the weight of the film on his shoulders. Even though he's often overlooked by the industry each year, he can really take on an incredible dramatic role and is probably the best actor out of all the comics to this day. He also teaches his son sound moral judgments throughout and exemplifies what a good father should be. All the other performers were suitable but no one else really stood out.
Joel Schumacher has turned out to be such a heinous filmmaker that it'll be forever beyond me why studios keep hiring him to direct. "The Number 23" was supposed to be suspenseful, and it was really anything but. The murder mystery aspect didn't hold my attention and I really could've cared less what was happening in those regards. The plot was confusing and the beginning contained so much unnecessary filler that it seemed to go on for way longer than its runtime. I absolutely hated the Fingerling scenes and thought they were pure drivel. They exemplified absurdity in its purest form and it was if they came out of some cheesy made-for-TV erotica flick on a late night premium channel.
There is absolutely no way I could recommend to anyone that this is a movie they should catch in the theater and hesitate to do so for even a rental. Unless you're still one of the unduly shrinking Carrey fan base or you enjoy any kind of paranoia theme there is no matter how dull it is along the way, then you'll do better off checking something else out and not wasting your time with this muck. This was a perfect example of an ending that puts together a twist just for the sake of having a twist, and it really showed. Connections were made that were obviously purely coincidental and no justice was done to an intriguing question that has plagued man over time. If only the film was only 23 minutes long, that's one enigma I could've lived withand it would've been a better movie for it too.