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For a Jim Carrey vehicle, The Number 23 has been receiving very little publicity as far as I've noticed, which could mean that the studio aren't that confident with it. If this is the case, it has been borne out in some negative early reviews. The film has been something of a personal project with Carrey, who apparently has a fixation with the number 23 in real life. The film takes the form of a thriller in which Carrey's character finds a book called The Number 23, in which he finds that the storyline and events bear striking similarities with his own. This inevitably leads to him becoming obsessed with finding who wrote it and what the significance of 23 is. There are several sections in which the book's story becomes a film within the film, played by the same actors (i.e. Jim Carrey is the main character etc), and these parts have a very stylish and grim noir feel to them. Initially these bits were more interesting than the 'real life' narrative but things soon became more interesting in that strand. I found the film to be constantly intriguing and absorbing, with Carrey again pulling off a serious role quite well. In the third act the film takes a turn that some may find hard to swallow, but personally I had no huge problems with it (other than its implausibility) and I have to admit that I didn't see it coming. The film was never completely gripping and there are numerous plot holes to be found but it was still quite an effective mystery.
The summary
The Number 23 is pretty flawed, but don't think about it too hard and it does its job fairly well.
