Jim Carrey's psychological thriller The Number 23 is a strangely mixed bag: startlingly dark at times, yet unavoidably laced with occasional Carreyisms that hint at a dark comedy that never materializes.

The film's storyline, potentially engrossing but logically implausible, is based on the interwoven effects of several fascinating phemonena: the occurence of strange coincidence, or synchronicity; the morbid obsession with numbers, called arithromania; and the so called "23 Enigma' which states that the number 23 has an intrinsic importance to all things.

The Number 23 begins by introducing Walter Sparrow, a happily married and moderately eccentric Animal Control Officer. When a series of work-related events causes Sparrow to be late for a meeting with his wife, her time spent in waiting is occupied with the discovery of a strange book that she is attracted to in a used book store. The book is called The Number 23, and it tells the first-hand story of a private detective who is infected by the number obsession of a suicidal woman.

When Walter reluctantly agrees to accept the book as a gift, he soon begins to see disturbing parallels between the story and his real-life past. The fictional detective's obsession with the number 23 works its way into the life of Walter Sparrow, while Sparrow is further convinced that he was the specific inspiration for the book.

Director Joel Schumacher seizes the opportunity to use beautiful photographic techniques for the many film noir styled flashbacks that fill the movie. In many ways the flashbacks, which feature dark alter egos of the main characters, are the most successful parts of the film. Their dreamlike quality negates the need for logic that fetters the real-life parts of the story, and their "art for art's sake" beauty give them a reason for being that transcends mere plot exposition.

Virgina Madsen has always had a talent for playing man-eating femmes fatale, and in her turn here as a perverse, dark-haired seductress, she's outstanding.

The Number 23 deserves credit for giving a very unique spin to the psychological thriller genre, and for those who are willing to suspend disbelief 100%, it's a moderately entertaining diversion. For those who want a mystery's puzzle pieces to fit without a hammer, 23 doesn't add up.