A Cumbersome Chore

Rating: Null/10 (9 September 2007)

Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with an enigmatic number & the details of a book having similarities with his life.
For a movie that was only 98 minutes long, it seemed to drag like trying to get through the last hour of a shift at my job. The actors aren't entirely to blame, however. Carrey is competent, although I do tire of his sad attempts at trying to humanize his characters with the input of sprinklings of his individual brand of goofy ass comedic style. Other than that, he does manage to put the sell on the character well enough, as does his costar.
The problem is that mood & pacing choices by the director have taken a fairly plain story, & tried to bestow cryptic ambiance to it, & fails dismally. Plus, I was less than entertained by the formulated abstractness, like the appearances of the dog, & the novel depictions. I just kept wishing he'd finish reading the damn book, which seemed like a fairly academic read. I'll also add that in hindsight, Carrey just doesn't carry the look of a rough, homicidal character well, either. It always reminds me of when he played the Axl Rose character in the Dirty Harry movie "The Dead Pool"
The ending was weak, but by that time I was just relieved to have it end, regardless. 23 this & 23 that, but what real impact did it have on the people it affected? I just couldn't tell you. Oh well... Welcome back Bob Zmuda.
Oh yeah, & why the Hell isn't Bud Cort credited for his performance as the weird old guy, that did that thing, that seemed important, at the time?
Blahhhh.