Don't get me wrong, I am not going to make some stand that 'The Number 23' is like some diamond in the rough, massively overlooked film. I totally totally get why people would dislike this film. 'The Number 23' had more than a few awkwardly acted, cringe worthy moments, additionally I guess for many people it's hard to imagine Jim Carrey not being funny. I'm not trying to be a complete contrarian here but it will be rather fun to at least defend this movie a little bit.
I personally gained awareness as a semi-intelligent being later in Jim Carrey's career I guess? I suppose he's still pretty dang relevant to this day so maybe that's rather hard to say what 'later' means for Carrey's career. To be more specific, while I did see plenty of Carrey's work by the time this came out nearly twenty years ago some of the first films of Carrey's I saw was during roughly 2003-2009. While those films were obviously comedy as he is known for, these movies didn't suggest to me that he was utterly incapable of being serious.
Additionally, I am a decently big fan of comedy and I don't see comedy as purely something to dismiss if that makes sense. To elaborate, I think a really good comedic actor or even comedian I guess, can sort of make the actor a lot more relatable in certain roles. Some people look at a comedic actor that tries to be serious and roll their eyes and I get that. But certain rare comedians I feel can pull off a serious role in a good, unique sort of way. A good comedic actor can really bring something to the table that a regular actor cannot.
As much as people may find it strange that a comedic actor takes on a serious role, I also tend to find it equally awkward when a serious actor tries to be funny. But here and there, these sort of ideas can meet in the middle and create a rather enjoyable piece of entertainment.
'The Number 23' has it's flaws but the way I see it, this was fairly enjoyable overall. I see that on Rotten Tomatoes this film was given a really awful rating and I just really think that's laughable. I have seen a ton worse movies than this. I don't want to name titles here but sheesh...
'The Number 23' has really solid story-telling I believe. Especially as the movie progresses. I really appreciate how the mystery unfolded and the ending as a whole was quite compelling in my opinion. As Walter/Fingerling or whatever you would like to call him, unravels the mystery of his own sick mind, Carrey really seems to shine big time. You can really feel just how deeply disturbed he is and I was rather impressed at just how well this situation was portrayed.
One of my favorite characters in this film actually turned out to be Walter's wife Agatha. She is such a sweet, strong and intelligent woman and Walter is so lucky to have found her as a wife, truly awesome.
On a personal note, I have had my own challenges in life, let's put it that way. A lot of drama and whatnot. I try to play it off and like stop babying or pitying myself but it's tough to balance between 'just get over it' and actually acknowledging that there was a lot of rough times for me growing up. Nobody knows because, nobody was there and so it's a bit hard to measure the level of the crap I went through. I think it was bad, but maybe it wasn't and maybe I'm a wimp?
Anyway, this movie sort of just does a good job at simply expressing that life does go on. Life is confusing but sometimes it's not that deep.
With the internet and endless of avenues of research in 2025, it's really easy to connect dots that really aren't there. It can be rather fun don't get me wrong but that's probably as far as you should think of it, just fun. Can't let fun cross into like genuine reality.
This is why I feel like Jim Carrey was a pretty solid choice for this role. I think he does a solid stand-alone job yes, but even if you do consider his comedic acting career, I think that only adds to the depth of his role. Carrey seems like a care-free silly individual in a majority of movies but as many of us know, those individuals can sometimes be the most tortured souls.
I don't want to heap TOO much praise for the film though, I didn't like love the movie or anything. I essentially see it as the poor man's Shutter Island.
