This review may contain spoilers!
Ballad of a Small Player is an adaptation of the novel 'The Ballad of a Small Player' by Lawrence Osborne. It follows Lord Doyle, a self-proclaimed 'high roller' living in Macau, who is gambling away a small fortune. Doyle is having a serious run of bad luck, with debt and a secret from his past threatening to destroy the life he is living. It will be a true gamble to see if he can still turn his fortune around.
This movie really surprised me at times; it felt a bit more scattered than Berger's previous works, and yet it still had some impressive statements behind it. This film is driven by the character of Doyle, a false figure and a liar. This is a man who stole to reinvent himself and immediately burrowed into an extravagant life of gambling, drinking and luxurious cuisine. Doyle despises himself, but has this dogged drive that winning a gamble will fix all of his problems. Throughout the entire film, we get this impression that what Doyle is running towards is a life free of his past sins caused by avarice, while at the same time, he is running from that life of avarice threatening to consume him. Even when Doyle starts 'finding' his luck, he becomes haunted and certain that his lifestyle will decimate him. The final fifteen minutes, when Doyle gambles to absolve himself and then rejects gambling and greed, are a healing moment that I think lands the whole feature quite nicely.
This is an Edward Berger movie, so if you aren't seated prepared for some excellent visuals, you have no idea what is in store. Ballad of a Small Player dazzles with colour and light, tantalisingly painting wealth one second while making it sickly and cloying in the next frame. I love how purposeful the camerawork is in a Berger film; Conclave marvelled with this, and Ballad continues the thread. The editing isn't the most inspired ever, but the way a smash cut or hallucination sequence is pieced together works well enough. Volker Bertelmann's score is magnificent; much like Doyle, I thought I might break out in a feverish sweat just from the anxiety of it all.
Fala Chen, who played Dao Ming, was a sympathetic and hardened lost soul, much like Farrell's character; I liked that you could almost tell when she became an idealised spectre of herself. Deanie Ip, who played Grandma, was a very dark force in the film despite having few scenes; Ip's character is a bully who thrives on the ruin greed brings.
However, the best performance came from Colin Farrell, who played Lord Doyle. This character really is the driving force behind the film, and Farrell seems up to the task. When we first meet Doyle, he is a wild character, deceitful and spiralling in his poor choices. Farrell makes the moments where he talks out of both sides of his mouth to maintain a lie rather effortless. I loved Farrell's chemistry with Chen; there is something magnetic and contemplative there that you really fall into. Watching this camera make horrid choices and destroy himself is troubling, often even stressful. Farrell brings this feverish and frantic quality to the role as all hope starts to become lost for Doyle. Yet, that shift in quality in the final act, where he starts to pursue something more noble with genuine intent, is brilliant. You really feel the role shedding layers of himself as Farrell portrays the rejection of avarice in those final minutes.
I loved the driving force behind the central theme of Ballad of a Small Player. The commentary around greed is where the story comes to life, but there are a lot of confusing elements within the plot that really let it down. I think this film tried hard to find a cultural thread, linking Doyle's plight with Chinese tradition and mythology. This was an effort that often felt in vain because there didn't seem to be enough knowledge behind the creative vision. The Chinese traditional element seemed unclear and like it was often feeling out its place in the story. I also thought this applied quite strongly to the Dao Ming ghost/hallucination story. She was a brilliant character used too sparingly, and her being this temporary presence made the direction of the story hard to follow. I didn't like the awkward side elements of the story that were barely defined. Things like Doyle having connections with other criminals like him in Macau was a thread that could've been better explored. Finally, the worst part of this film was often when Doyle, as a character, was examined too closely, often by Blithe. The investigation by Blithe seemed to have an intent to ground the story, but it was off-kilter and rather jarring to the wider narrative that was being played out. Yes, Doyle's real self needed to be aired out, but this hovering figure of quavering British morality did very little to drive home the point of the feature.
Tilda Swinton, who played Blithe, was an erratic private investigator role that really had a jarring impact on the film; Swinton's skittish character seemed like a strange mouthpiece for morality. Alex Jennings, who played Adrian Lippett, was a pompous role that had little bearing to give on the story; Jennings' inclusion in that big climactic scene was a poor choice.
The story gets a bit contrived at times, but this is an aesthetic film with plenty to say about avarice. I would give Ballad of a Small Player a 6.5/10.