"The Number 23"

My apologies for taking so long to have a new posting up, but I have been on vacation for the past week.

OK lets dive right into a movie I recently watched called "The number 23." I've watched Jim Carrey all the way back to his days as a dorky teenager in "Love at first bite" then onto his days on "In living color" and then onto his movie career which has turned out to be quite successful. I've enjoyed almost all of it. As Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, and "The Mask" I found myself several times on the floor unable to breath from laughing so hard. Jim is a marvelous comedic actor, and just has this way about him that you can not help but like, however, as he has tried to transition into a serious actor, I would have to say that most, if not all of his attempts to play a serious role have failed. Until now!

"The Number 23" is a very twisted brain bender, in which Jim (Walter Sparrow / Fingerling) gets caught up in a book that was found at a local book store by his wife, Agatha Sparrow / Fabrizia (played by Virginia Madsen.) Walter starts reading this red covered book, and begins to notice how almost all the events of the authors life, seems to run parallel to his own. So much so that he begins to obsess about how the number 23 begins to saturate and consume the authors life, and then begins to obsess himself in the same way. Everything equals 23!

As Walter falls further and further into the darkness of this mind trap, he also finds out the he is not the only person this book has captured!
Unfortunately I really can't go into much detail about the rest of the story because of how easily it would spoil the story, and the very weird ending to this strange tale.

Getting back to Jim Carrey's performance playing in a serious and strange role. Even in this movie i found myself seeing bits and pieces of all his funny characters from other movies, but there are many scenes in this movie where Jim does finally make the successful jump from comedic, to serious, and wow does he do it in style. One particular scene he is terrified, and crying, and I must admit, I bought into the seen hook, line, and sinker.

This movie has a very dark look to it, and all of the different spin off scenes as Walter reads this book, are well put together, and in the end, keeps you off balance, and for once in a very long time, actually guessing until the end.

While Director Joel Schumacher has a long, and distinguished list of movies he has directed, as I look down the list, there is not a whole lot of movie I have really cared for over the years, but I did like this one. There were a few spots that kept things SO off balance that I found it hard some times to keep a grip on the story line, but in the end, all the lose ends are tied up, and your left with your jaw hanging off your chest.

My rating for this movie is a solid 7.00 out of 10.00