After All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) and Conclave, I was on board for whatever director Edward Berger was going to do next. The German director greatly impressed me with his dazzling visuals and his dedication to detail with his filmmaking. So with his latest feature, Ballad of a Small Player, it placed high on my most anticipated films of the year. With Colin Farrell leading the film, a strong novel to adapt from, and all of Berger’s usuals behind the camera, I was left wondering, “where did this movie go wrong?”.
We follow Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell), a gambling addict lying low in Macau where he spends his days and nights on the casino floor, drinking and gambling what little money he has left. Struggling to keep up with his fast-rising debts, he is offered a lifeline by the mysterious Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a casino employee with secrets of her own. However, a private detective named Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) is hot on his tail as she forces Doyle to confront his past. Just as Doyle tries to climb towards salvation, the confines of reality start to close in on him.
Before I bog down the room too much, let me state where Ballad of a Small Player went right. For the first 45-minutes I was hooked. Watching Doyal, played magnetically by Colin Farrell who is the best part of the movie, spirals into madness induced by cocaine, alcohol, and his rising debts was simply captivating. We feel the walls closing in around this character as he clings onto the hope that all he needs is one good round to pay off his debts and to get out of Macau, but deep down he knows that he will most likely be dead by the end of the week by someone’s hands or his own. And with James Friend beautifully colorful cinematography, you feel the delirium that our character is spiraling in. The film was firing on all cylinders in this opening hour with its frantic, fever dream energy and it was nothing but captivating.
However, sometime around the half way point, Ballad of a Small Player loses its plot and becomes a big garbled mess, that had an ending so unearned that myself, and everyone else in the Princess of Wales Theatre, scratching their heads. The narrative truly becomes a fever dream where nothing makes sense as all narrative cohesion is lost as you are bouncing from one plot point to the next. I have a feeling that I would have liked the ending if the film took the time to build it. But instead it’s a rushed and woefully unearned ending.
It is sad to see a film unravel so dramatically, especially given that the film started off so strong. Even in its unraveling, everyone in-front and behind the camera is trying their hardest to salvage it from its messy script. Berger’s direction is strong with this frantic and maddening energy, the cinematography is some of the best of the year with its incredibly bright and colorful color palette. And Colin Farrell is simply magnetic as the always sweaty Doyle who is losing his grip on reality. If you watch Ballad of a Small Player, you watch it for Colin Farrell’s performance. However, despite their efforts, they can’t save the film from its messy script. It’s a shame but it happens, proving that no matter how good everyone in front and behind the camera is, they can’t save a film from a convoluted script.
My Rating: C+
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