The Music of Chance is a spellbinding film directed by Philip Haas and based on a novel by Paul Auster. Mandy Patinken plays a former fireman who offers a ride to a low-life gambler (James Spader). He then stakes him in a poker match with two eccentric, lottery-winning millionaires played by Charles Durning and Joel Grey. The partners lose everything and are forced to pay off the debt by constructing a wall on the rich men's estate. This brilliantly performed drama has a Pintersque quality to it that effectively communicates its sinister messages about destiny, the soullessness of lives enslaved to wealth, and the capriciousness of human nature.