Obsessive Compulsive Psycho Murderer...With Shock Therapy Induced Amnesia Too!

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2007)

In all the movies I've seen Jim Carey in I was never able to forget he was,well...Jim Carey. With this movie the inner actor breaks free of the man himself to become the character and not the actor playing the character. In other words, no rubber faced overacting here, just an excellent portrayal of a one-time institutionalized mental patient who was "cured" and years later is, seemingly, once again heading for a break due to a book he receives as a present from his wife
Strangely the book is exactly about his life...and how the number 23 is darkly connected to it. But there is one difference, his character in the book is a murderer and since he is a family man that can't be him...As far as he knows?
This movie is fairly polarizing and is likely to be one the viewer either strongly likes or dislikes. You have to be committed as it isn't easy entertainment or fast paced. Instead it's atmospheric tension and moodiness slowly builds and pulls you in deeper if you can stay with it. It gets very creepy and only in it's ending does it let up. In fact it is, in MHO, an excellent psychological thriller until the ending, which is light and almost happy. Hey, that in and of itself is an unexpected twist, yet it's the only weakness in an otherwise solid movie. Recommended.