The truth will find you

Rating: 6/10 (9 April 2008)

On his birthday, Walter Sparrow, an amiable dog-catcher, takes a call that leaves him dog bit and late to pick up his wife. She browsed in a bookstore, finding a novel, a murder mystery with numerology that loops constantly around the number 23. The story captivates Walter: he dreams it, he notices aspects of his life that can be rendered by "23," he searches for the author, he stays in the hotel where events in the novel took place, and he begins to believe it was no novel. His wife and son try to help him, sometimes in sympathy, sometimes to protect him. Slowly, with danger to himself and to his family, he closes in on the truth.
Many people, with the critics, have panned this film. Well, I actually don't know about the people, per se, but I know that a lot of people did not like this movie. I gave it a watch and it's not as bad as many people put it out to be, even the Razzie nomination to Jim Carrey. This film may be ridiculous because you get a set of numbers, and it all equals the number 23. Well, how you got that in the first place is to put the numbers in different order, or add or subtract or multiply or divide, or put the numbers in fractions, or decimals, or....you know what I'm saying. In order to get the number 23, you'll have to do many of those things...however, that is the point of the film.
Who cares if you have to do all these crazy stuff with numbers. It's better to just go with it than to question a billion of things that comes into your mind when watching the film. Watch and enjoy; that's all I'm saying. When I saw the film, I was pleasantly surprised on how close you have to pay attention to small details and how intelligent the film wants the audience to be.
So you get to get caught up in this ridiculous act with the characters in the film to do something that leads to the number 23. Maybe your name, phone number, licenses, etc will equal 23. Maybe not, but this film catches your attention from the first scene and it will continue to do so until the end.
The problem with this film, however, is that it tries to get too clever and smart that you just don't seem to care about halfway through the film. The film also feels entirely so long, when the film is actually about 90 minutes. I did like the ending, though. It was really different and satisfying.
Everyone gives a good performance in here. In fact, the same actors/actresses play different characters at once. Is it to confuse you? Probably not. The film was good and some dumb fun, with some slow parts, but in the end, it's a truly satisfying film for me.