Movie Review: Carrey acts crazy, psycho in The Number 23

03/06/07 - We've all seen Jim Carrey as a psycho before, but we've never seen him like this. He has officially made a profession out of acting crazy. He's been everything from a stalking cable guy, to a nice guy gone schizo, to a liar, to a grinch and everything in between. In The Number 23, Carrey picks a role that we've never seen him do before, a psychological thriller. Although Carrey does a great job acting, it isn't enough to save this movie. This is the kind of movie you would watch in an acting class, but probably not in a film class.

This time Carrey doesn't play a pet detective or a policeman. Instead, he is an animal patrol officer.

After losing a fight with a bulldog he lovingly names "Dead Ned," Walter Sparrow (Carrey) meets his wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen) at a local bookstore. She hands him a book that is ominously blood red. As Sparrow reads the book, we see a visual of the story and he begins to visualize himself as the main character, Detective Fingerling.

After reading the first chapter, Sparrow begins to associate the book with his life. He finds many strange parallels to his own life and tells his wife and son, Robin (Logan Lermin), about it. Agatha tries to explain to Sparrow he is nothing like Fingerling, but he is unconvinced.

As Sparrow reads more, he becomes fixated with the author's obsessions, including the number 23. Everything from Sparrow's name to his address adds up to 23, and Robin becomes increasingly certain of the number as well.

Sparrow then becomes suspicious of his wife because Fingerling's girlfriend cheated on him. Sparrow then finds out that Fingerling killed his girlfriend. At the movie's climax, Sparrow realizes that the man who wrote the book was confessing to a real murder, so Sparrow goes looking for him.

Any further and you'll be able to figure out the end, and I wouldn't want to ruin the ending. The movie redeems itself somewhat with its final scenes.

One thing I liked was that you could look for 23 everywhere and usually find it. Carrey's humor also comes out and lightens up an otherwise dark movie.

There were a few things that really annoyed me. For instance, the dog Ned appeared everywhere, and at one point I found myself laughing because Sparrow was in his truck with his wife and son facing the dog. It was like an ultimate stare down between Ned and Sparrow

Ned finally hits the gas, but the dog doesn't move. His wife and son begin yelling at him, but he doesn't stop until the grill of the truck is an inch from Ned's nose. I can't imagine any dog being that brave, even if it's a bulldog.

Overall, the movie had me completely baffled until the end, although the ending is something that's been seen a million times. It reminded me of something M. Night Shyamalan would direct.

If you like Carrey, I would say definitely go see this movie, but if you're tired of the same old twist at the end, I wouldn't give it a chance.