Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 16, 2003 | | Summary | OK. | Content
 | This is an absorbing, but unforthcoming, film. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 15, 2003 | | Summary | You all might think I'm fulla beans, but here goes...., | Content
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First I saw the movie, and halfway through, it literally detonated in my head. It's a Freemasonic allegory! (And not exactly complimentary to Masonry, I might add, if I'm interpreting it correctly.) The masonic references are subtle (with the exception, of course, of the stone wall. 10,000 stones ain't exactly subtle but they tip you off to start looking elsewhere for clues.) I am not a Mason, but have read quite a bit about them, and our man Nashe (Wonder what Nagy means in Magyar?) is clearly a "traveling man", a man whose obligations (career,family) have fallen by the wayside (a favorite Auster motif), leaving him careening aimlessly, like a rogue pinball, from western city to western city who, as we meet him, is going "from the West to the East". (See the exchange between Michael Caine and Christopher Plummer on the train in "The Man Who Would Be King" if you don't believe me.) He picks up Pozzi, who has been "struck on the temple", just as Hiram Abiff was struck in the Masonic story of the events surrounding the building of the Temple of Solomon, and which is reenacted in ritual in the induction of every Master Mason. There are a number of other clever details such as the brand of champagne they drink with the hooker that just happens to be my old favorite "Veuve Cliquot". (It's too small to read on the film, but no other champagne has that distinctive orange label.) "Veuve" is French for Widow, and Masons often refer to each other as Sons of the Widow. The names of the two poker players, Flower and Stone, may refer to Rosicrucians and Freemasons, but their trip to France might refer to either Hugh De Payens and his pal's trip to see Bernard de Clairvoux (which kicked off the Templars, whom the Masons claim as ancestors), or perhaps Ben Franklin's (and friend?) trip to Paris where he was inducted into the French Lodge "Neuf Soeurs". They are many more (too many to mention here) and I still haven't cracked the whole thing (not being a Mason makes it a harder job), but the book fascinates me and I'll continue to dig. I've recently read Music of Chance, Moon Palace, and City of Glass, and will read the rest soon. This fellow is a joy to read, particularly for aficionados of the mystery genre, which he well knows how to seduce with his labyrinthine structures and metaphysical quandaries. He smacks of Miguel de Unamuno ("Niebla", "Fog" in English, I believe) and Jorge Luis Borges, the father of the metaphysical detective story (but whereas Borges' stories, much as I love them, are purely cerebral exercises, cold around the heart, and liberally sprinkled with red herrings as if to mock his readers, Auster's are anguished and emotionally involving), of the Pythagorean School (and its obsession with the relationship between music and mathematics) and the Priests of Heliopolis (whom I suspect they got it from), of drunken Phaeton and his wax wings and of the Minotaur in his Maze, of the poetry of Leonard Cohen and Lenny Bruce and Tony Curtis (who had his own brand of poetry, ask his women . I don't know if it's because this cat is my own age, or because I know his New York (before moving to Seattle), but I felt an instant kinship, like we'd read all the same books at some point.NOTE TO THE AUTHOR: If you read this, Mr. Auster, please drop me an email to either disabuse me of these notions or to confirm that I'm on the right track. In return, regardless of the answer, you have my word that I'll buy the rest of your books anyway, and that I won't abuse any email response, or ask you to autograph the books, or any such nonsense. I'm a stable, happily married chap with two kids and a small business, not a wacko or a literary groupie. Thanks for the ride, man, and keep 'em comin'! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 13, 2002 | | Summary | Exceptional film. | Content
| James Spader and his "True Colors" co-star Mandy Patinkin play a pair of newly-acquainted men who hope to out-play an eccentric pair of millionaires in a high-stakes poker game. Not only do they lose, but they must work of their debt in a rather unorthodox indentured-servitude kind of way. Both men had their own financial troubles and reasons for getting into the poker game in the first place, but neither of them realized exactly how costly their repayment would be.
In an interesting casting twist, Spader plays the oily, hustling loser of the two.
The final scene poses an interesting possibility - that the end result of their misadventure is part of the cyclic karma that put them there in the first place. Or something like that. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 18, 2002 | | Summary | Cool and intelligent... | Content
| Making a film from a brilliant novel is a risky venture any way you look at it. The list of failures would run into the thousands. Granted, there have been some good ones: 'The Godfather' series comes to mind. So when I came across ~ The Music of Chance~ in the video store, I thought, "Will I take the chance?" How could anyone make or even think about making a film from this exceptional novel? It would be too difficult. Well, without question, director and co-screenwriter, Phillip Haas, pulled it off with such flair and elegance that it drove to return to the novel and experience once again. James Nashe (Mandy Patinkin) has taken to the road without any particular destination in mind, and has been travelling for over two years. One day he picks up Jack Pozzi (James Spader), a poker player of apparent talent. An instant friendship follows, and they go in for a bizzare game of poker with two millionare, highly eccentric recluses in a far off manor in Pennsylvania. A strange twist of chance occurs during the game and our two protagonists lose everything. The two recluses make a deal to even up the debt, which James and Jack will regret for the rest of their lives. The movie and novel's genius is the surface-mundane plot and the profound themes simmering underneath the day to day. What does it really mean to take responsibility for one's actions? How far do we take responsibility with others? Is there such a thing as luck? Are we fated to suffer as human beings? Is there growth in suffering? Can we control our destinies and how do we react when hard times befall us? The novel and surprisingly the film ask these weighty questions directly and through metaphor, pushing us to think about our lives. One of the disappointing aspects about watching a film adaptation is the characters and environment never match-up to what one mentally generated while reading the book. Directors, too, will use creative licence and insert their own interpretation, at times ruining the original plot. Haas remained on task, however, and the film ran very close to the novel. Mandy Patinkin is James Nashe and James Spader as Jack Pozzi was as close to an accurate interpretation of a literary charcter as one could possibly attain: first class acting. ~The Music of Chance~ has been described by some as being a parable on the human condition. If one watches closeley, this film, without being entirely conscious of it, guides you through the big questions, and gently leaves you pondering. This film is very cool, intelligent with an incredible amount of panache. |
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