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The Music of Chance

Play trailer The Music of Chance R 1993 1h 38m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 15 Reviews 88% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
A yuppie (Mandy Patinkin) and a drifter (James Spader) lose at poker at a mansion and are put to work building a stone wall.

Critics Reviews

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Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader 06/06/2022
2/4
The main thing the movie has going for it is the acting–juicy performances by the five male leads ... Go to Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 01/01/2000
3/4
The Music of Chance is one of those movies you can argue about for hours. It refuses to reveal its meaning, yet seems convinced it has one. Go to Full Review Malcolm Johnson Hartford Courant 04/13/2018
As it moves towards its fatalistic, circular ending, Haas' austere, matter-of-fact but unnerving portrait of strange bedfellows takes on the feeling of life in all of its isolation, hope and endless, meaningless toil. Go to Full Review Quentin Curtis Independent on Sunday 12/12/2017
The film is a brilliantly enigmatic examination of luck, the feeling we have of some harmony or order governing our fate. Go to Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 06/06/2017
B
The oddball tale is so well-acted that it seems like a neglected minor gem. Go to Full Review Adam Lippe Examiner.com 08/27/2012
Haas' literal-minded adaptation, something he also did effectively with the more visually opulent Angels and Insects, is helpful in directly laying out our own moral debate, where our sense of social obligation bumps up against our moralistic outrage. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Richard T 03/10/2024 What of the most unexpectedly beautiful, dark original films I've ever seen. Can't speak highly enough about it See more 09/09/2020 This is a dark but absolutely brilliant movie. I don't understand why it has become so obscure. Because of this movie I started reading Paul Auster's books, and I'm a confirmed fan. The movie is very true to the book... See more 06/23/2014 This funny was very funny See more 07/10/2013 A true gem of a movie. and one of the most underated films of the 90's. Great performances all round. Not to be missed. Its about a couple of mates who loose a game of poker I seem to remember, and they dont have enough cash to cover the debt. So instead they agree to finish bulding a wall in the garden of the guy's house, and unbeknown to them they become prisoner and it all turns nasty. See more 08/31/2012 Incredibly interesting, but dark and weird and cold and full of symbols and stuff I probably wouldn't figure out in a million years. Two people, aimlessly drifting through life, meet each other and decide to win some money at a poker game against a couple of rich guys who one of them beat many years before...but that's only the first half hour of the film, and things get much stranger after that. See more 05/12/2012 Don't really know why this film is so good... nothing actually happens, they play poker and build a wall. That's it! See more Read all reviews
The Music of Chance

My Rating

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Cast & Crew

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Philip Haas

Director

James Spader

Jack Pozzi

Mandy Patinkin

Jim Nashe

M. Emmet Walsh

Calvin Murks

Charles Durning

Bill Flower

Joel Grey

Willy Stone
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The Music of Chance

The Music of Chance (1993) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis A yuppie (Mandy Patinkin) and a drifter (James Spader) lose at poker at a mansion and are put to work building a stone wall.
Director
Philip Haas
Producer
Frederick Zollo, Dylan Sellers
Rating
R
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 38m