The Music of Chance

Paul Auster, one of America's most gifted living novelists, has always written works which could easily be translated to the silver screen. The New York Trilogy, for one, could easily find kinship with the film noir genre, while The Book of Illusions enters the forgotten world of the silent cinema of the 20's. So it's strange that Paul Auster and the cinema have only made fleeting advances towards each other, standing cautiously at opposite sides of the room. Smoke, directed by Wayne Wang and written by Auster, is one adventure into the limelight; the other is The Music of Chance.

Auster has always been entranced by fate, chance, patterns; his characters seem to have a supernatural sense of their paths in life. The Music of Chance, which I admit I have not read as a novel, is a typical Auster work. Everything revolves around this idea of chance. The film starts with an intriguing introduction to one of our protagonists; a beaten and shabby looking man wandering along a highway in broad daylight. A garish powder blue suit is tattered and torn. This is Jack Pozzi (James Spader). A passing car pulls up, and Jim (Mandy Patinkin), a sturdy, solid man's man offers this stray cat a ride. Is it fate, or just coincidence? What makes Jim stop? This is textbook Auster. Already he has you guessing.

The pair spark up an unlikely companionship. We learn of Jack's career as an expert card player, in a bad patch, and Jim's former life as a fireman, but now driving aimlessly on the road to nowhere and everywhere. Again, these are familiar Auster characters; people pushed to the outskirts of society, often by themselves. Jim has a wealth of cash to burn and a happy-go-lucky streak, Jack has a failsafe plan to win a lucrative card game. It seems fate has brought them together. The two head off to a remote country estate, where a pair of eccentric old businessmen reside. This is the setting for the card game, and the turning point for the film. I won't spoil it, but things take a turn for the unexpected.

This is a very competent adaptation of a very good writer's work. Phillip Haas's direction is unpretentious and sophisticated; his finest move is letting the story and the characters work their magic. James Spader doesn't seem to be in much notable films these days, which is a shame because he made a spate of good films in the 90's. He brings a nervous, desperate energy to the scuzzy Jack Pozzi. Mandy Patinkin provides a perfect foil; the straight man, if you will. His performance is almost Bresson-ian in it's spareness; his masculine, angular features embodying a solid, moral centre in contrast to Pozzi.

A very solid and worthwhile adaptation, which carries the appeal of Auster's writing; it is absorbing, enigmatic and playful.

7/10