Tuesday

I missed the first few minutes of The Number 23. I had, once again, misread the cinema times for The Good Shepherd, and so ended up running across Shaftesbury Avenue in order to make it on time to see The Number 23. Maybe someone who sees it can tells me what happens. I don't think I missed much, and it was actually fun to try to guess what had occurred. Anyway, was it a good film? That's what you're all here to find out. I was hooked on the concept from the trailer, but have to say the movie was a little disappointing. I like Jim Carrey, and he does add a bit of humanity to what might otherwise have been an austere film, but he's not really stretched here, seems to be 'performing' rather than 'acting'. I wasn't as engrossed as I thought I would be. At times I was, at times I wasn't. I suppose I was wanting more from the film than was there - paralleling, perhaps, the character's fixation with a number. It could have been better, I guess is my overall verdict. There was too much narration, too many flashes into the narrative of the book he's reading, the psychological breakdown wasn't convincing enough, and the plot never really got as dark as I was hoping it would. I didn't see the final twist in the end coming, and was shocked, but somehow I wasn't satisfied. This is a miss hit, I think, though I should mention the cinematography was very good.