The main problem with the film is that it plays with some ideas that don't pay off in the end, for example, the dog. I found the dog to be an annoying recurrence. I know it was necessary for the first encounter, but the returns to the animal and the guys at the cemetery feel like a failed thread.

There are a few instances of directions that feel incomplete, unfulfilled. Then, when the climax rolled around, I felt like I had seen it before, and it just seemed like a rush job, like the writers were unsure how to resolve it, and forgot to include the number in its twist, making the number inconsequential as anything more than a device to display Walter's increasing instability. The resulting finish dragged down all the good things that had peppered the previous hour.

While the plot feels recycled, there is very nice use of style, and narrative device to propel the plot, proving that when director Joel Schumacher is on, he's on. It doesn't hurt that Carrey effortlessly slips into the dual roles of the obssessive Walter, and the hard boiled Fingerling. That leads to the strongest part of the film, the overlapping tale of Walter's obsession with the book and the number, and the dark, tattooed tough guy Detective Fingerling. The neo-noir of Fingerling (the main character in the book The Number 23) is wonderfully shot and realized, even if Fingerling is the only interesting character. Carrey does a good job of displaying both the tough, gritty character, and the unbalanced Walter, creating two sides of a single coin.

Bottom line. In the end, the film is an interesting experiment in non-funny Carrey. The narrative may not hold together upon close inspection, yet it does have a nicely stylish execution with its dual tales. There was plenty of potential, partially realized, resulting in a middling thriller that may be a little too stylish for its own good.

Mildly Recommended.