Ballad of a Small Player, 2025.
Directed by Edward Berger.
Starring Colin Farrell, Fala Chen, Tilda Swinton, Deanie Yip Tak-Han, Alex Jennings, Jason Tobin, Adrienne Lau, and Anthony Wong.
SYNOPSIS:
When his past and his debts start to catch up with him, a high-stakes gambler laying low in Macau encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.
Well, at the very least, director Edward Berger is evidently determined never to repeat himself. Ballad of a Small Player is as much of a deviation from his steadily growing filmography as Conclave was to his breakout debut remake of All Quiet on the Western Front. This third feature (from a screenplay by Rowan Joffe, based on the novel by Lawrence Osborne) attempts to do something off-kilter with the degenerate gambler subgenre, delving into the protagonist’s psyche to the point of a psychological break and an out-of-left-field supernatural element. In execution, it’s a disjointed blob that’s a struggle to invest in.
One upside is that it is another impressive feature on a technical level, with striking cinematography from James Friend that captures the energetic nightlife of Macau and the general gambling scene, as much as whatever Colin Farrell’s Lord Doyle is stressing over. And Volker Bertelmann’s unrelentingly loud score is a constant presence to ensure that. As for the name, it’s one he has given himself to prop up his status and self-importance. Doyle may come across as wealthy with money to burn, gambling night after night, but it’s all a façade. His lucky yellow gloves aren’t actually that lucky, and if anything, he owes so much money in debts that he faces possible deportation back to England. Equally strenuous is the fact that he is being hunted down and spied upon by private investigator Blithe (Tilda Swinton), who is ready to blackmail him for his shady past.
There are more than just financial debts that Doyle needs to pay off, with much of Ballad of a Small Player functioning as a personal journey of self. The problem is that, despite Colin Farrell’s frayed expressions, nervous breakdowns, and moments of quiet reflection, it’s not necessarily an interesting introspection on identity. That’s without considering the superficial supernatural flourishes, which are almost certainly something more subtle and impactful in the novel. Here, it’s an awkward element that could have been a tantalizing basis for a different film.
Along the way, Lord Doyle also befriends a guilt-ridden casino worker named Dao Ming (Fala Chen), broken and defeated from watching losers (similar to Doyle himself) blow their money and throw themselves off rooftops. As someone handing over the chips, Dao feels complicit in this seemingly never-ending tragedy. Dissecting the problematic nature of gambling vices by way of those with guilt over working in these casinos in the first place would make for a more refreshingly compelling film than watching another sadsack man spiral, but that’s not what this narrative (and presumably the novel) has in store. Instead, Dao randomly develops a friendship that borders on romantic with Lord Doyle, becoming the latest person he vows to pay off debts to (her backstory contains more sadness). From there, the film finds more insulting ways to treat her character as a prop existing solely to serve his arc.
At the very least, Ballad of a Small Player mines baccarat for a couple of on-edge, high-anxiety gambling scenes (with the camera in place to capture the tiniest fragments visible as Doyle, nervous as all hell, slowly turns his cards over) and is trying to work fascinating Chinese mythology and customs into the somewhat intriguing cautionary moral of the story. Someone watching at home on Netflix also might be persuaded to take a trip to Macau or the nearest casino. Either of those sounds like a better idea than watching this film, which is primarily a classic example of flattening several ideas from a novel into an incohesive whole. One continues to admire what Edward Berger can pull off with his trusted below-the-line collaborators, but the story here is a shoulder-shrugging disappointment.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
