Paint-By-Numbers Thriller That Fails On Multiple Levels

Rating: Null/10 (4 March 2007)

The Joe Cool Experience: The Number 23(2007)
Starring: Jim Carrey as Walter Sparrow/Fingerling Virginia Madsen as Agatha Sparrow/Fabriza Logan Lerman as Robin Sparrow Danny Huston as Issac French/Dr. Miles Phoenix
Plot: A man finds a book called The Number 23 and begins to read it. As he follows the characters in the story he finds they closely resemble his life and he also sees the number 23 everywhere. He soon finds out that the character in the book becomes a killer. Does this mean he will kill too? Is the number 23 really controlling him?
I was so excited about this movie when first hearing about it. It looked like a smart thriller and featured Jim Carrey returning to another serious role, which he is good at. But what I got was a contrived mess that seemed like it was rushed and thrown together. Before I go into complaining, I'll just state what I did like about it.
This movie had a very strong cast. Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen carry this movie on their backs, and try to drag it away from the corner that thrillers like this are all shuffled into. I thought the idea was great, and the fact they created lots of examples of how the Number 23 is everywhere(although some of them were reaching...32 is 23 reversed!) helped the "curse" aspect of the story take hold.
However this movie DOES go into typical Hollywood thriller mode fairly quick, with all the minor and the one major plot twist being things that can be seen coming from anyone with half a brain. This looked and felt paint-by-numbers. It's pretty much an example of, "If you've seen one, you've seen them all". Only some of the others were done better. The ending definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth. All the build up and then it ends rather abrupt and anticlimactic. The subplot with the dog was especially stupid and really had nothing to do with anything in the long run.
This movie tries to hard to be scary but really doesn't do that. It tries to be funny, and thanks to some moments where Jim Carrey's natural style of humor comes forward, it succeeds. Some of the attempted humor falls flat. It tries to be a mystery, but it's a puzzle that is easy to solve. It seems like on almost every level this movie fails, except for the actor. The actors tried here and that I can appreciate. But when the script is less-than-average the acting can't save it.
Overall, The Number 23 tries to be many things and fails. I don't recommend it, unless you just love Jim Carrey and want to see another of his movies. But even then I think you should be able to skip this one and it won't matter much. So do just that, skip this one.
Rating: * of *****