Ballad of a Small Player: Colin Farrell brings much needed energy to this strained gambling redemption story

In the first scene of Ballad of a Small Player, Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell), an inveterate gambler, wakes in a high-priced Macau hotel room looking dishevelled in rumpled formalwear. James Friend’s attractive digital cinematography captures the neon skyline and gaudy room (and, later, the multicoloured carpets, chips, and slot machines of the gambling halls) with a sharp, assaultive palette. Volker Bertelmann’s heavy-duty classical score blares loudly, announcing a story of tragic import with a tremor of irony. For the Netflix viewers who will comprise the film’s main audience, such relative stylistic verve will likely stand out from the bland look of the streaming giant’s usual in-house productions. If only all of director Edward Berger’s sound and fury did more than artificially inflate a story that remains entirely on the surface.  

With Conclave (2024) and the Oscar-garlanded Netflix release All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), Berger proved himself an adept technician of propulsive, stylistically intelligent “movies for grownups.” Returning to Netflix as a house auteur, Berger now has the confidence to try on the clothes of certain visionary filmmakers. 

This film’s intense visual style recalls such gaming-mecca touchstones as Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995) and Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), while Farrell’s temporarily embarrassed nobleman is reminiscent of the seedy old-world gentleman played by Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Echoes of Wes Anderson are also felt in the presence of Tilda Swinton in full kitsch drag as a private investigator on Doyle’s trail; the two share a comic foot-chase through a Macau hotel that would not be out of place in a later Anderson film. But comparisons do this film no favours: Anderson, who often wrings pathos from his unbendingly arch tone and his casts’ minimalist performances, is a more disciplined hand than Berger, who careens awkwardly between sardonic comedy and sappy melodrama. 

The emotional core – the dreariest sections – involve Doyle’s flirtation with a mysterious woman, Dao Ming, who tries to pry him away from vice, lending him money and sympathy. It’s ambiguous to what extent Doyle’s saviour is real, but the ambiguous drift into fantasy registers mostly as contrivance. 

Inevitably, one’s mind turns to the great films about gambling addiction, including Karel Reisz’s The Gambler (1974) and the Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems (2019), which dared to be unlikeable; their abrasive protagonists were willing to put anyone in peril for the rush of their next win – or, just as potent, loss. Farrell commits with an energetic physical performance, and Berger’s camera revels in all the flaws of the star’s middle-age handsomeness, but their efforts strain what is little more than a simple, feel-good redemption story. It might pop for an evening on your HD TV, but it’s not a patch on its many inspirations. 

► Ballad of a Small Player is on Netflix UK now.