I've heard rumors that Jim Carrey fired his agent and management as a result of this film, or perhaps this film being the culmination of too many bad projects that they have wrangled him into doing. Perhaps this may only add to the creepy lore that is connected to the number 23. When I saw the short trailer for this film I was somewhat excited due to the fact that I had a weird friend in college who was obsessed with all this 23 business and even prevailed upon me to read tracts on the subject by authors no less laudible than Jung and Koestler. Both of whom arrive at sober opinions on this little quirk of numerology as they do Synchronicity. In fact it is Arthur Koestler's book Ghost in the Machine that inspired much of Sting's work before and after the Police. Regardless how silly you may think this film's approach to the legacy of the number 23, if you are scholastically inclined and wish to gain an intuitive grasp on everything from creationism versus evolution to the proper weight one should afford the theories of Sigmund Freud do yourself a favor, you will read no more fascinating book in this life.

If indeed the fault for Carrey's participation in 23 lies with his "people" he may be justified in firing them all – for one thing he's already played this grim, emaciated obsessive in the brilliant Eternal Sunshine. By playing it again Sam, he's succeeded only in diminishing that film by participating in this murder by number. And indeed Carrey gives this performance his all. In a perfect world, one could go home, call up Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood and they could come over with some beer and a joint and you could all jump around on your bed in your underwear with Kirsten Dunst and then have the film erased from your memory.

The number 23 fails for reasons that are so innumerable that I really don't feel like listing them. Chief among them is its film noir companion narrative that fit the tone of the main narrative like fishnet stockings on a rhino. The film doesn't offer enough background on the infamy of the dastardly digits to even make the proceedings interesting much less make any sense. The film's truly fatal flaws are much more obvious, however, not once does it generate any suspense or any real sense of menace, and when it isn't being downright silly, it's mostly just boring.

Just for the fun of it I checked Rotten Tomatoes in the hope that its cumulative critical score would be 23, which would actually lent the film a little bit of spookiness. Unfortunately its RT rating was an abysmal 8. Wait a minute I went to see the film with two other people, 3 times 8 is 24. 24 subtract the one moment of the film that was actually unexpected, effective and entertaining and that makes . . . whoa dude, that's some freaky shit.

Actually the only thing I found mildly mysterious about the film was that Jim Carrey plays a Pet Detective.