The Number 23 | 100 Movies Bucket List

I'd never heard of this movie before seeing it on the bucket list, and when I looked it up the only thing I saw was how low it was rated, so I went into it both blind and with low expectations.

The film was entertaining but left a lot to be desired. 

From the start, even though I didn't know what the plot was, I liked the direction the story was going. I was immediately interested and excited for this to turn into a twisty mystery thriller. 

I think the first red flag for me was the writing. The actors did the best with what they had, and most of the performances were good, but the dialogue between the characters doesn't work. In the dream/book sequences particularly every word hits the ear wrong. 

And of course these parts aren't necessarily supposed to be as real as the rest of the film, but it doesn't feel like a story or a dream, it feels like a bad parody of something you didn't want to watch in the first place. And they last way too long! 

It's interesting watching a character descend into madness and paranoia, but it would have been better if we got to know the character a bit more, which again, would have been helped by less dream sequences. 

There were some interesting twists and turns as we get closer to the conclusion. 

But then everything fell apart for me because of how obvious the ending was. I guessed almost immediately what a possible plot twist could be and hoped I was wrong because it would be the most obvious thing in the world - and unfortunately, that's the thing they went with. 

And then from here it just gets very convoluted and odd. You stop caring about the characters and the story, and instead you just wait for it to be over - which takes a long time! 

So overall, I didn't hate the film, but I do understand why most of the ratings were unfavourable, and I have no idea why this was included on a list of classic movies!