In Joel Schumacher’s murder-mystery thriller, funnyman Jim Carrey again tries for serious with unsuccessful results. Carrey plays two roles — Walter, a goofy family man and dog-catcher (hello? Ace Ventura?), and, in a flashback/dream subplot, a hipsterish jazzman obsessed with the number 23. Everything, it seems, adds up to 23, or occurred on the 23rd, or is made of 2s and 3s … The dual cartoonish roles give Carrey too much license to be broad, and the ridiculous plot doesn’t help: Walter is led on chases by a cemetery dog-cum-sentry; he reads a book by Topsy Kretts (get it?); he starts to see the number 23 everywhere — you almost wish Carrey would break out in full silliness. The dog, the numbers 2 and 3, an empty grave, the two Carreys (supported by two Virginia Madsens) — it all makes a tacked-on sort of sense at the end, but you’ll have long since interest and moved on to headier pursuits. Let’s see … J-i-m has three letters; C-a-r-r-e-y has six which is two times three … (AH) [capsule review] 
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2007.
