What a wasted opportunity

Rating: 1/10 (26 July 2007)

Firstly, let's imagine that the film wasn't called "The number 23", but was called "The colour Blue" (or any other colour except Purple). Imagine, if you will, that the main character comes across a book that seems to have an intimate link with his own personal history. Then imagine that the book instills in him a healthy interest in the colour blue. Suddenly, he goes round observing blue objects with unhealthy fascination. He thinks about the colour of his first school uniform, the fact that as a boy, he had to traditionally wear blue, he hears 'Blue Moon' on the radio etc. - are you gripped yet? No. Didn't think so.....
But hang on a sec....this is about numbers, particularly, a number that has a very important place in numerology, conspiracy theories, Illuminati history, religion etc. There is already an inherent mysticism about the number 23 that a casual Google search will reveal. Yet the film fails to exploit any of that. It might as well be the number 31, the colour blue, or the letter D.
So, now that the relevance & cultural impact of a number with a huge degree of potential to the overall plot has been grossly diminished, what do we have left? Well, we have a very confused plot remaining about a book, a string of highly unhealthy coincidences, a cast of characters who seem too quick (or too gullible) to believe in any old rubbish (For an even worse example of this, watch M.Night Shyamalan's 'Lady in the Water' and despair at a whole apartment block full of imbecilic residents!!), and then, a few disparate glitzy arty 'MTV' shots, just to give the film a bit of street cred. Jim Carrey doesn't lend much to the film, other than his name & star appeal. The film didn't benefit from his acting skills, and he didn't really benefit from the film. It could have been any faceless B-movie actor in that role & it wouldn't have made the film any more or less appealing.
The sad thing is, I enjoy a good film with a good 'unreliable narrator' twist in it (6th sense, Usual Suspects etc.), but there are increasingly too many 'bet you can't guess the twist' films that really ruin the genre. (starting with everything Shyamalan has done since the 6th sense, and every copycat film trying to jump a bandwagon!). Unfortunately, the worst thing about the Number 23 isn't the acting, confused plot, or the lack of incorporating the more esoteric aspects of 23 into the plot, but with the 'big denouement'. No, I didn't guess it, but when it finally revealed itself, I was totally underwhelmed. Then, to add insult to injury, the film went on for yet another 20-odd minutes with a very mawkish, tedious and overlong explanation.
There! Film review finished
(ooh! Spooky! That last line had 23 letters in it! Someone call a doctor!!)