The truth will find you.
Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) becomes obsessed with a book that appears to be based on his life but ends with a murder that has yet to happen in real life.
Special Agent Matti
The number 23 is an above-average thriller that goes too far past the climax; chopping off a good 6 minutes would make it heaps better. You won't figure it all out before the big reveal because you only have as many clues as the protagonist. Sucks to be Jim Carrey.
I liked that the entire Sparrow family got involved in the enigmatic number 23. The family that obsesses together, stays together.
When spoken in the tones of a conspiracy, the power of that number is hard to deny but take a step back and you see that there's no conspiracy, just an obsession. If you think about a number (or a colour, or a word) then you will notice it because your brain believes that it's important to do so. This stems from the training our ancestors evolved way back in the ocean: Watch out for big fish! As soon as your subconscious sees anything like a big fish it flashes a big neon arrow at it so you can swim out of the way. Paranoia is an evolutionary development.
Jim Carrey is a good paranoiac while Virginia Madsen and Logan Lerman make good conspirators. They're like Good and Evil sitting on Jim's shoulders, whispering in his ears. Joel Schumacher's directing gets a bit artistic at times but you can live with it in a weird-arse movie like this one.
The mystery, thriller movie The number 23 is directed by Joel Schumacher and stars Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman.
MA 15+ (Strong suicide themes)
98 minutes (1:38 hours)
Film: 25 April 2007
