An interesting mystery film, but probably not one you'll want to see again

Rating: 4/10 (6 July 2008)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) lives a quiet life as a humble dog catcher. But he has a bit of a troubled past, with his mother's death at eight years old, his father's subsequent suicide and discovering the body of a blonde woman in a nearby house at around the same time. For his birthday, his wife gets him a book, a detective novel, about a character named Fingerling who is driven mad and commits murder after becoming obsessed with the number twenty-three and all the weird coincidences it has. But the more Walter reads the book, he becomes obsessed with the coincidences between himself and the main character, and starts to worry that he will come to do exactly as he does.
Former rubber faced funny man Robin Williams tried his hand at thrillers with the likes of Insomnia, One Hour Photo and The Night Listener. So it's interesting, if nothing else, to see how former rubber faced funnyman Jim Carrey would fare. Even in a serious role, he's still hard to buy and can't quite shake off his funnyman look and delivery. So with a leading man who isn't completely up to scratch, things are already looking down for this psychological thriller outing.
The film tries to be a clever, twisty-turny thriller and you certainly have to pay attention to everything going on, but this feels less to do with it being genuinely intelligent and gripping and more to do with it being muddled and confusing, more a sign of director Joel Schumacher crying for help than making a masterpiece.
One thing the film does manage to do is make a genuinely interesting point about all the bizarre connections to the number twenty three and incorporate it intelligently into the story. But after a while this starts to get on your nerves more than keep you involved in the story, making you want to think more about the number twenty three bus service than the film. And I thought 13 was the unlucky 'three' number? **