The Music of Chance

I rented this movie about five years ago not knowing what to expect. I saw a few raves on the back of the box, and even though the cast looked a bit uneven, I took a chance. I was totally mesmerized. I enjoyed it so much I watched the whole thing all over again the next evening. It's a totally captivating story with wonderful cinematography, a beautiful soundtrack, and it's all held together by the fact that you have no idea what is going to happen next.

The story -- based on the novel by Paul Auster -- is certainly an original one. Mandy Patinkin plays a fireman named Nash who is taking an extended roadtrip/vacation and picks up the James Spader character (Pozzi) on the side of the road, bruised and bloody. Apparently Pozzi, who is normally a card player with a golden touch, lost his shirt to a pair of eccentric millionaires. Nash agrees to front Pozzi the money to get back in a game with the old guys in an attempt to win back his money. Well, one thing leads to another and Nash and Pozzi lose their shirts in the rematch. The payoff scheme conceived by the millionaires eventually drives Nash and Pozzi to the brink of insanity. Without giving away too much more of the plot, let's just say it involves the building of a wall and we'll leave it at that.

All the performances are memorable. It's a small cast, but each actor (Patinkin, Spader, Charles Durning, Joel Grey, M. Emmet Walsh, Christopher Penn and Samantha Mathis) does wonderfully. Patinkin is marvelous as a quiet, sensible man who slowly goes mad. Spader is totally over the top and manages to deliver what's probably his finest performance to date. Durning is terrific, as is the always-dependable character actor Walsh.

A few months after seeing the movie for the first time, I read the book and was pleasantly surprised at how faithful the book was in recreating the story. If you are a fan of this book or any other of Auster's works, this is definitely worth checking out.

This is a film that defies categorization. It starts off seemingly as a film about high stakes poker players and evolves into something decidedly and deliciously different. James Spader plays something other than his usual blonde pretty boy types and Mandy Patinkin shines. If you are fed up with movies with plots you can easily second guess then 'The Music Of Chance' is for you.

Now here's a rare bird indeed--a '90s movie with an imaginative, original plotline and interesting characters. There wasn't a moment in this film where I could tell where it was going. It wasn't just random and arbitrary like, say, "U-Turn" or "Lost Highway". With a measured pace, it's constructed like a weird dream--if you liked the films of Philip Kaufman or Lindsay Anderson, or the plays of David Mamet, I think you'll have a good time with this one.

"The Music of Chance" is about--well--the music of chance. Life is terribly, sometimes beautifully, unpredictable, yet man has ever sought to control the odds, or weight them in his favor. The penchant for doing this extends from the gambler to the stockbroker. We find varying elements of this desire in most of the world's religions.

Pozzi, coming off a losing streak, believes he can regain his losses by playing two novices he beat previously, Flower and Stone, in a high-stakes poker game. They have, however, boned up on their game since last playing him, and he and Jim Nashe, who has staked him, are left with a Sisyphean task to work off their debt.

Nashe, played expertly by Mandy Patamkin, may be the only "free man" of the major characters in this film. He can accept loss with grace and strength, which likely reflects his attitude toward life. Pozzi, Flower, Stone, and Murks are all prisoners of their particular "angle." "The City of the World," a board model in the Flower-Stone residence, embodies a world where nothing is left to chance, and the enslaved revel in their servitude.

This is a rare film in that it raises philosophical questions, in much the same way that "The Rapture" raised theological ones. As such, it was unlikely to gain a large audience, in spite of some very good performances.

Paul Auster writes marvelous contemporary fiction, and this is a wonderful film adaptation of perhaps his finest work.

THE MUSIC OF CHANCE revolves around two very different protagonists. Jim Nash (Mandy Patinkin) is an ex-fireman, driving across America, and searching for meaning to his life. Jack Pozzi (James Spader) is a professional poker player, out of money, out of luck, and given a ride to New York by Nash. It emerges Jack has a game scheduled with two eccentric millionaires (Joel Grey and Charles Durning), so Jim puts up the capital with the last of his own money. But the poker game doesn't go quite according to plan...

Some people have described this film as "pretentious" - pretending to what exactly? Jack Pozzi and Jim Nash are two unusually clearly defined characters - one shallow, over-confident, tetchy; the other calm, reasonable, tolerant. Their eventual predicament is also disarmingly simple. That air of mystery to the film does not spring from narrative or character but from the viewer's own philosophies towards life. Does one choose one's own path or is it chosen for you? Chance or fate? Freedom or incarceration? Meaning or, in Nash's words, "just bullshit". So in fact even if you think the events onscreen have no deeper meaning, well then that *is* the meaning. For you anyway.

The acting is universally excellent, with Grey, Durning, M Emmet Walsh, and Chris Penn illuminating supporting roles. But Patinkin and Spader dominate the film, with two absolutely captivating performances. Philip Haas's direction is suitably under-stated, and there is also excellent use of music, from jazz to classical.

THE MUSIC OF CHANCE is an absorbing and intelligent piece of film-making. If only there were more films like it.