The Number 23

Jim Carrey stars as Walter Sparrow, an average Joe living a seemingly average life, that is until his wife buys him a mysterious book for his 32nd birthday. The book, a poorly written detective story that the audience experiences through Carrey's creepy, over-the-top narration, is Walter Sparrow’s gateway into the obsessive world of the number 23, a numeral long believed to have supernatural associations. As Walter Sparrow delves further into the story of Detective Fingerling (also played by Carrey, in the film’s most visually interesting scenes), he begins to see reflections of his own life in the story, following a series of hidden clues, like a Da Vinci Code for psychos. Even though the film leaves much to be desired, the DVD extras are well done. The Number 23 Unrated DVD is an infinifilm disc, which includes both the theatrical and "uncut” versions of the movie, as well as the infinifilm "Fact Track,” which places interesting titbits of information on screen and allows you to access special features during the course of the film (if you are able to make it through The Number 23 a second time). There is also the standard "making of” featurette, one about numerology, a "Find Your Numbers” feature that teaches you how to learn your life number and what that number means, an "About the 23 Enigma” featurette that explores the history of the mysterious number and, of course, a commentary track. If you’re bored, enjoy Jim Carrey’s non-comedic roles, or just can’t stop thinking about twos and threes then The Number 23 is a watchable suspense movie. For everyone else, I'd have to say that this film rates a 2.3 out of five.