'Ballad of a Small Player': A Shallow, Yet Stylish Gambling Drama

PHOTO: Netflix

Filmmaker Edward Berger has experienced a sharp rise in his career ever since his international breakthrough with All Quiet on the Western Front. That film, a German language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic World War I-set novel, premiered on Netflix in late 2022 and became a surprise hit, ultimately winning four Oscars, including Best International Feature. Berger followed up All Quiet’s success two years later with his English language debut, Conclave, a papal drama that garnered him further praise and success and was one of the most talked about films of last year. This brings us to his latest film, Ballad of a Small Player. While Berger has been on a bit of a hot streak lately, this film stops it dead in its tracks. Despite bringing in talent such as Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton and featuring alluring neon-dappled cinematography, Ballad is a dull journey through the casinos of Macau that doesn’t fully pay off.

Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) spends his days gambling and drinking in Macau. He has fled there in an attempt to hide from his past and live the life of a high roller. After racking up significant debt, Doyle finds himself nearing the end of his rope. As luck would have it, a casino employee named Dao Ming (Fala Chen) offers him a line of credit to help him get him out of the hole he’s in. Doyle soon becomes fascinated by her and begins trying to pay off his debt. Meanwhile, private investigator Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) is hot on his trail, and seeks to have Doyle reckon with his past. Doyle finds himself desperate to get the money he needs to continue living his decadent lifestyle, but also starts to reconsider his choices at the same time.

The film is already pretty precarious as is, but it probably would have fallen completely apart if Colin Farrell wasn’t in the lead role. Farrell is such a gifted performer, and he consistently shows bravery in his work. As Lord Doyle, Farrell is fully committed and has a manic energy that draws you to him. There have been many alcoholic gambler characters in cinema over the years, but Farrell makes Doyle feel unique and uses his flashiness as an interesting facade that gets chipped away over the course of the film. There is an emptiness to the character that Farrell portrays so well, as Doyle is constantly on the run and unsure of who he even is anymore. Where the film ends up with the character doesn’t feel entirely earned, but Farrell makes the best of what he’s given and carries much of the film. 

Fala Chen is an interesting foil to Farrell’s Lord Doyle, playing the mysterious casino employee Dao Ming. She is rather enchanting, and though she is gone for large stretches of the film, her presence is felt regularly throughout. The way Dao Ming is written is pretty one-dimensional, but Chen elevates the role pretty well. Tilda Swinton is good as always, but she feels overqualified. As private investigator Cynthia Blithe, she is interesting to watch, but the film squanders her talents. This role could have been played by any number of people and it would have probably played out similarly to how it does in Swinton’s hands. It feels like she’s doing this as a favor, and while she’s still doing decent work, it’s definitely not her finest hour. Alex Jennings has perhaps the weakest role in the main cast as Adrian Lippett, one of the film’s antagonists. This character is poorly defined, but he has the energy to make him pop. I couldn’t tell you much about his character, but Jennings has a strong presence and still leaves a bit of an impression.

The main issue with the film is that it has the structure and style needed to make it work, but it has no substance. There are many moments that drive home Lord Doyle’s greed, but these are surface-level at best and just hammer in the same point over and over. The film starts out with an interesting tone and rhythm, but quickly loses it and just wanders for much of the runtime. It becomes discordant, trying to be a gambling movie, a fast-paced thriller, a romance, and a ghost story all in one. There is a universe where Berger could have pulled this fusion off, but that would also require stronger writing. Instead, the film becomes jumbled and loses track of what it is trying to be, leading it to be a complete mess. This isn’t helped by its ending, which suggests via a grand gesture that Doyle has transformed through his journey. It just doesn’t feel all that believable, and ends the film on a confounding note. Again, the film has a lot of things in place to make that moment work, but the film lacks so much heart and depth that it just falls flat. 

At least it looks nice, as the film’s use of color is quite effective and the shot composition is pretty solid throughout. The use of neon and bright colors in the Macau scenes are eye-catching and evocative, especially when coupled with the use of shadows in some scenes. The gambling scenes are especially well shot and edited, giving off the mix of adrenaline and anxiety that Doyle experiences. The craft on display is admittedly good, which makes it even more frustrating that the rest of the film is so subpar. If the film could have had more focus and more going on under the surface, it would have fared much better, but as a result it just feels like an empty spectacle. 

Suffice to say, Ballad of a Small Player is a huge misfire from Edward Berger. Not even the likes of Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton can save it, and it ends up being a big mess. Beyond its visuals and Farrell’s performance, there’s nothing to write home about. It will likely end up being a strange footnote for almost everyone involved, and be buried within Netflix’s extensive library. Ballad clearly wants to hit big with viewers, but it is a shallow exercise that has little to offer.

Rating: 2/5