Just about adds up

Rating: Null/10 (11 January 2008)

Probably the most impressive thing about this film  apart from the fact that Jim Carrey can appear on-screen without being intensely annoying  is the sheer deluge of information regarding the number 23 rather than anything to do with the plot, style or technique. Carrey makes a good job of portraying an average Joe slowly coming unhinged as he identifies a little too closely with the character in a book purchased for him by his wife, especially as he has to overcome a plot which immerses him in 'paranoia' a little too quickly to be comfortably believable.
For all the talk about the number 23, the film is more about fate and the way that seemingly insignificant events can have life-changing consequences. Dog-catcher Walter Sparrow resists the unwelcome advances of a work colleague at a Christmas party so, two months later, she spitefully sends him on a job one minute before knocking off which makes him late picking up his wife, who browses in a bookshop while she waits and buys him the book that propels Walter on his devastating journey. It's coincidence disguised as fate, really, but it holds together quite well for the purposes of the story. Writer Fernley Phillips, whose first effort this is, does well to tap into our seeming fascination with numbers (just look at the message boards and trivia section for this flick to see what I mean) and combine it with a paranoid thriller/mystery that just about manages to work.
The only major flaw is the way that Philips can only tie up all the loose ends through the use of a lengthy explanation (to both us and Walter) which tends to rudely eject the viewer from the film and back into their seat. The complex plot is all very clever  even though it doesn't quite hold together  but any explanations required should be reserved for the after-movie discussion/reflection rather than the last reel of the movie itself.