Rent The Music of Chance (1993)

Wall of Life - The Music of Chance review by Steve

Quality arthouse parable faithfully adapted from Paul Auster's 1990 modernist novel, which is unapologetically highbrow, but still accessible. This is Philip Haas' debut as director and he exclusively made films from the sort of modern classics that win literary prizes, and it's a shame there wasn't much of an audience for them.

It features James Spader's signature performance in the centrepiece role, as a loud, unsophisticated card shark who is bankrolled by a more level headed stalwart (Mandy Patinkin) in a high-stakes poker game with a pair of eccentric millionaires (Charles Durning and Joel Gray). And that's already an intriguingly offbeat cast.

When the challengers recklessly lose, they agree to pay off the debt by building a huge, pointless wall in the grounds of the wealthy duo's mansion with the stones from a medieval castle- while the winners go to Europe. And we also get M. Emmet Walsh as the obsequious/insidious go-between who manages the futile project.

So it's a surreal allegory for the iniquities of capitalism... which is deepened by the unique imagination of the author and the eerie, dreamlike ambience of Haas' staging until it generates a considerable emotional charge. And we may begin to empathise with the two schmucks. It's a head movie, but more engaging than that implies.