Jim Carrey is a hugely talented and versatile actor, but I think his best work is the early wacky roles, like Dumb and Dumber and Ace Ventura. This is one of those roles in which he plays the everyman caught up in events seemingly larger than he. It reminded me of his role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Walter Sparrow is a dog catcher and committed family man. He doesn't have much of a life outside of that. His wife picks up a novel for him that seems to echo Sparrow's life. He becomes absorbed in the book, obsessed with the parallels to his life and the significance of the number 23 in it.
This was a great, promising premise, but he gets into so much dream/fantasy that he and I were both confused about what was real and what was not real. Then his wife figures out what's going on before he does and she intervenes in some ways that are really not realistic. Yes, the film has some surprising twists. But twists for the sake of twisting aren't that effective. This was an OK movie that didn't come together and finish the job very well. Bottom line, a star and a half.
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