Walter Sparrow is a dog catcher. For his birthday his wife (Virginia Madsen) buys him a book centering on a murder mystery and a tale of obsession around the number 23. As Walter reads on he begins to notice similarities between the main character of his book and himself. Soon he is as obsessed with the number 23 as Detective Fingerling in the book version of The Number 23 and soon we're spending and hour and a half watching Jim Carrey spaz out over the number 23. Mysteries unfold, hidden natures are uncovered, and there are a lot of number 23's sprinkled through out.

23.

I'll give you 23 guesses as to what they decided on for a title... The Number 23!

With promising trailers showcasing an evil-looking Jim Carrey descending into a world of gritty darkness and murder, my curiosity was piqued. Unfortunately the end product, directed by Joel Schumacher, turned out to be a muddled snooze fest of epic proportions that failed to live up to expectations. Plodding pace, an annoying number of references to the number 23, and Jim Carrey trying to pull off a serious role does not a good movie make.

Don't get me wrong. Jim Carrey is capable of pulling off dramatic roles, we've seen him do it before. This time however there is still a touch of the goofy side of him present and it is just enough to make the character come across as awkward. Granted he is not pulling any of his slapstick routine here, there's just a touch of goofy Carrey present. Also off-putting, in his appearances as detective Fingerling he just does not fit the look required for the part. Dark and brooding, dressed in black, covered in tattoos, while one would think this could convert someone to the dark side to make them look like a troubled soul, he comes across as a gothy, strung-out Ace Ventura and simply kills any atmosphere they've managed to build up until this point.

Outside of the ill-fitting Carrey, there were a multitude of other problems as well. Foremost of all of these was the plot itself. Convoluted and confusing, it was hard to pinpoint just exactly where they were heading at times.

Sure it's about a man obsessed with the number and his slow descent into insanity. Where the problem lies is that they tried so very hard to play up this number obsession it soon became distracting, managing only to muddy the plot. Instead of razor sharp twists and turns that make for a good mystery thriller we are stabbed repeatedly with a hammer in their attempts to drive the point home.

So if your hopes were for a smart and dark thriller after seeing the misleading trailers, I'm sorry to have to disappoint you. What could have proven exciting as well as thought-provoking turned out to be a mish-mash of Carrey trying to play a vicious villain. Ultimately the movie was downright boring as well with little to no excitement to keep one awake.

One and a half strung-out Ace Venturas out of five...