Jim Carrey is a man who rose to stardom through his ability to stretch his facial muscles in countless ways nature never intended, all in the name of comedy.

However, in recent years, Carrey has made an effort to stretch his acting muscles as well. By dabbling in more dramatic roles, including an unwitting reality television star in “The Truman Show,” enigmatic comedian Andy Kaufman in “Man on the Moon” and a heartbroken sad-sack in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Carrey won well-deserved raves from critics.

Now Carrey has taken his ongoing quest for non-comedic recognition into the thriller genre with “The Number 23.” I suspect critics will be far less generous with their praise this time.

“The Number 23,” directed by journeyman filmmaker Joel Schumacher (the director infamously responsible for temporarily destroying the “Batman” franchise with 1997’s “Batman & Robin”), is a ludicrous mess of a suspense thriller. The film aspires to be twisting and shocking, but only succeeds in being convoluted and preposterous.

Carrey plays Walter Sparrow, a mild-mannered family man and animal control officer (which I chose to view as an “Ace Ventura” shout-out, whether it was intended or not). Walter lives an idyllic life with his loving wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen), and son, Robin (Logan Lerman). Apart from sustaining the occasional on-the-job dog bite, the only apparent nuisance in Walter’s life is his wife’s friend, a psychology professor (Danny Huston) who barely bothers to conceal his crush on her.

One day, while waiting for a tardy Walter, Agatha pops into a local bookstore and picks up a mystery novel entitled “The Number 23.” After she quickly devours the book, Walter begins to slowly leaf through it. Though the subject of the book is a detective attempting to solve a murder, Walter feels a strange connection to the material, as if it somehow dovetailed with his own life.

Walter soon becomes deeply obsessed with a particular aspect of the book. The detective at the heart of the book’s story believes that he is “cursed” by the number 23. The character sees the number everywhere and becomes dangerously paranoid as a result. Walter comes to adopt this paranoia for himself. He begins to notice the number presenting itself in several aspects of his own life. His birthday, his anniversary, his Social Security number and his home address all correspond to 23. He cannot escape the omnipresence of the number.

The numerological element of 23 in the film is actually quite interesting, initially. In the opening credits, we are presented with a series of somewhat eerie facts about the number’s frequent place in history (Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times; Shakespeare was born and died on April 23rd). For a time, it appears that the film intends to explore the mysterious and ominous nature of the number.

Unfortunately, the film uses the 23 angle merely as a hook to draw the audience into what turns out to be a rather shoddily constructed murder mystery. Walter learns that the book might be a fictionalized account of a local murder that occurred 15 years prior, and becomes convinced that the author must be the real killer. Despite feeling as though he is losing his grip on sanity, Walter sets out to find the author.

From there, “The Number 23” collapses into nonsense. The story devolves into a series of half-baked plot turns, culminating in a twist so unbelievably absurd that many members of the audience audibly voiced their disbelief at what they were seeing.

As he did with 1999’s “8MM,” Schumacher labors to create a dark and disturbing visual style for the film, similar to what director David Fincher did with “Seven.” However, such sensibilities are foreign to Schumacher. He simply is not an edgy filmmaker. He is the man who took Batman, arguably the darkest and moodiest of all superheroes, and made him into a campy, neon-tinged joke. As a result, the attempts to visually unsettle the audience in “The Number 23” are largely met with a shrug.

Carrey has proven several times that he is not simply a rubber-faced jester, but a highly capable actor. His performance as the introverted Joel in “Eternal Sunshine” was so well performed that I completely forgot that I was watching the man who once brought life to Fire Marshall Bill.

But, in “The Number 23,” Carrey does not fare as well. He is engaging in the early scenes depicting Walter’s home life, but as the character becomes increasingly unhinged, Carrey’s performance grows uneven and, at times, even unintentionally funny.

For instance, throughout the film, Walter visualizes himself as the book’s detective, with slicked-back hair, a trenchcoat constantly flapping in the wind and a gravelly voice. I was often confused whether these scenes were intended to be humorous or if Carrey simply was not playing them as straight as he was supposed to have.

“The Number 23” is an atrocious film. I can applaud Carrey’s desire to try his hand at the thriller genre, but he needs to find a decent script for his next attempt. I’m not kidding in the slightest when I say that “The Cable Guy” was a much creepier movie than this.

Brandon Wolfe can be reached at [email protected].