La musique du hasard

"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.

THE MUSIC OF CHANCE (1994) *** Mandy Patinkin, James Spader, Joel Grey, Charles Durning, M. Emmet Walsh. Little-seen gem of a film with Patinkin en route to play in a high stakes poker game and picks up scruffy, greasy con man Spader who wants in only for both men to wind up in some weird circumstances this side of "The Twilight Zone". Nicely modulated acting and a truly bizarre conclusion.

The premise of the movie is that two very different kind of drifters hook up. One being Pozzi (James Spader), a professional card player and the other Nashe (Mandy Patinkin), an ex-firefighter whose wife abandoned him and their young daughter. He has left his child with his sister and is driving around the country in an attempt to run from his pain.

Nashe decides to bankroll Pozzi in a poker game with two rich eccentrics (played dauntingly enough by Charles Durning and Joel Grey). Pozzi is convinced the men will be an easy take but as fate would have it, he not only loses Nashe's last ten grand and beloved BMW, but with Nashe's help, they get themselves ten thousand dollars in debt to the two wealthy men. One of the players has the idea of letting them pay off the debt by building a wall monument out of 10,000 stones imported from a castle in Europe. Pozzi is outraged but cannot bring himself to leave Nashe, who is agreeable to working off the debt. They'll live in a trailer in the meadow for several weeks while working on the monument. Their days of labor, supervised by Calvin (M. Emmet Walsh) and evening discussions are interesting enough.

I have the feeling the movie would have been more enjoyable if I'd read the novel and couldn't help but imagine how the book was worded as I watched the movie a second time. It is one of those films I can watch again and again. I'm still trying to figure out the lessons besides the obvious: gambles, playing out of your league, getting in over your head and that there's no such thing as a "sure thing".

Pozzi and Nashe may have different world views but they don't clash, they actually compliment each other rather nicely. I thought it profound when Pozzi blames Nashe for breaking his winning streak by wandering off during the fabled game and into the "City of the World" room. There Nashe swipes a tiny replica of their antagonists. Pozzi asserts that Nashe broke the streak by violating the Universe in some way, destroying the harmony they had enjoyed while winning. Nashe thinks this absurd and that Pozzi is giving power to a little piece of wood and sets it on fire to prove his point. This "City of the World" room is toy land built by one of the rich poker player's (Joel Grey's Stone). It's his view of what was and what should be. Disturbingly enough, it contains prisoners happily paying for their crimes. It's a tool for foreshadowing some events and also portrays the wealthy eccentric's power over their pawns. And though the "City of the World" is Stone's baby, one gets the feeling that Charles Durning's Flower character was the real ruler of their kingdom.

The movie only features about ten actors, making it clean and simple fare. James Spader does a superb job of making a creepy, little hustler likable. He is helped by Mandy Patinkin's soothing performance of a damaged but composed soul who's sympathy for Pozzi is contagious.

Beneath Nashe's stoicism his emotions are as palpable as Pozzi's outward agitation. A soft-spoken and strangely plotted story, it's quite a rare gem.

A favorite from the actual 90's this film and the book by the amazing Paul Auster it's based on is still a mind bending thriller. You can see how it's influenced filmmakers like Charlie Kaufman and others, and deserves a wider audience. Give it a chance, lol, it will stay with you in that rare way wildly imaginative films do.

The Music of Chance is one of those movies in the "eclectic" section at your local video store, one that you pick up on that Thursday when your girlfriend is off on a trip and no one will go to the pub with you. One you wouldn't actually go out and rent to watch with others, lest they find out how pathetic your life is.

But once you get one of these movies home, you find it's absolutely gripping. Sure, it's actually a picture-novel--not purely a visual experience, obviously based on something. But you watch it. Then you watch it again, and listen more carefully. Then you return it, so that you can tell your friends that they really ought to see this movie, it's got that guy, you know, the fat guy, and this other guy, and it's about poker, and your friends ignore you, and think to themselves, "hope his girlfriend gets back soon--he's a wreck these days." But really, they should see the movie. But they don't. And the crushing loneliness and isolation of modern life weighs down on you all the more heavily.

*That* is what this movie is like.