The Number 23 feels like the germ of an idea that finds no way to flower into anything pretty, but among the things it does right, milking that germ for its own novelty value may have been the most fun one. The movie starts with its titular number and plays with it as much as it can, the fascination being its coincidental numerological appearances in many events or signs in human history -- such as: there are 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human body; 2 divided by 3 is .666, which could be the number of the devil; Kurt Cobain's birth and death year numbers both add up to 23; and so forth. Not only does the film fling these 23-related tidbits at you (the title sequence does a nice job with this), it also tosses in numerous visual signifiers by juxtaposing 2's and 3's wherever it can as well as by revealing certain words and names. It practically becomes a "Where's Waldo" movie for 23.

Unfortunately, not much else comes of this. The movie is fashioned to be a psychological thriller starring an against-type Jim Carrey. He plays Walter, an animal-control employee who becomes obsessed with a book called "The Number 23," apparently a self-published detective novel. The more he reads the book, the more he believes the details of the main character's life (played out through several fantasy sequences, also starring Carrey) coincide with his own, and the book seems to be about him. Also, as the detective becomes obsessed with the number 23, Walter finds that number appearing in many places in his life as well.

And here the story takes a bit of a leap, as the obsession leads to potentially murderous insanity. Walter becomes more and more paranoid, but the movie doesn't really convince us about the paranoia being a natural development. Carrey doesn't play the character like someone who's already borderline insane; actually, he seems decently adjusted, just a little depressed, perhaps, but nothing's there that might convince us he'd get pushed to the edge because of a book and a number obsession. Strangely, the movie faces this straight up -- as Walter tries to convince others of the significance of all the coincidences he's seeing, the other characters (including wife Agatha, played by Virginia Madsen) are more than happy to tell him he's reading too much into it.

But the movie has to go somewhere, so eventually Walter's investigations do uncover certain truths -- however, the more this goes on, the less the number 23 has much to do with anything. Frankly, he could've been obsessed with any number; and any mystical significance connected with this particular number  begins to wane. There is the possibility that the movie is concerned with debunking the spurious nature of superstitions; if one sees the movie that way from beginning to end, it might work to support the realist's notion about our tendency buy into a lot of bunk. But then why legitimize some of the "bunk" with Walter's suspicions leading to a truth? It's then apparent that the movie has mostly superficial thrills on its mind, playing with a number and a character's psychology but not really saying anything about them.

It's still amusing to watch Carrey here, though. Even in a movie like this, he can't help himself -- he's got to be funny in some way, and in The Number 23 he uses his sardonic sense of humor to disarm those around him. This approach, however, doesn't help to create a convincing descent into madness; one gets the idea that Walter would be too self-aware, too ironic, or too jaded to let a number get to his head. Superstitious individuals tend to be active in their beliefs -- they pursue coincidences because it's in their nature. When's the last time you watched a cynic freak out and go superstitious on you?

(Released by New Line Cinema and rated "R" for violence, disturbing images, sexuality and language.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.