Film | »Ballad of a Small Player«: A man, lonely and lost

Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) is in dire straits. He keeps losing money at the gambling table, the posh hotel where he's staying wants him to finally pay his bills, and to make matters worse, private detective Cynthia Blythe (Tilda Swinton) is suddenly on his trail. Edward Berger's new film "Ballad of a Small Player" delves into the lurid world of casinos in Macau, China, and tells the drama of a lonely man on the run, driven to despair by his gambling addiction and repeatedly on the verge of a heart attack.

The story is based on a novel by Lawrence Osborne, whose books have rarely been translated into German and who is often celebrated as a kind of Paul Bowles or Graham Greene of contemporary literature. Accordingly, the male protagonist in "Ballad of a Small Player" is essentially on the verge of tragic downfall, fighting doggedly for his own existence and experiencing a kind of metaphysical catharsis. With his red velvet jacket and yellow leather gloves, Lord Doyle, whose life is closely intertwined with gambling, seems like a figure out of time. His real name is quite different, he is, of course, not aristocratic, and in reality, he comes from the Irish working class.

Macau is just the right place of radiant artificiality to reinvent yourself.

But Macau is just the right place of radiant artificiality to reinvent oneself. And so the small-time British asset manager who embezzled a million pounds set out on an adventurous journey to the other side of the world, only to experience the utter failure of his dreams.

Edward Berger stages this tragedy as an exuberant, visually stunning drama set against the backdrop of Macau's casinos, where, like Las Vegas, there's a replica of the Eiffel Tower, complete with gigantic, colorful fountains and a glittering skyline. The all-too-predictable story of the failing gambler eventually drifts into a psychedelic ghost story, with a somewhat exotic feel, featuring processions of traditionally costumed groups and temples illuminated by firelight.

During a desperate, intoxicated night at the gambling table, Lord Doyle meets the mysterious and, of course, beautiful Dao Ming (Fala Chen), who lends him money on exorbitant terms so he can continue gambling and lose everything again. An affair inevitably develops between the two. She finally rescues him when he has a breakdown and takes him to a houseboat off the coast of Macau.

There, Lord Doyle not only seems to recover from his compulsive gambling addiction, but he also learns the secret of his lover, who, like him, is fleeing from her own past and an irreparable guilt.

Of course, after the all-too-brief catharsis, it's back to the gaming table at some point. And instead of losing, Lord Doyle, who only ever plays the rather undemanding game of baccarat, so popular even in James Bond films, experiences a truly great streak of luck. But is this really happening? Or is it part of a ghostly conjuration?

Lord Doyle plunges ever deeper into the frenzy of the game and looks increasingly worse, as if the life is slowly being sucked out of him. Does this have anything to do with the Buddhist spirit festival, which is repeatedly mentioned and which takes place during the week in which Doyle is under pressure from all sides to finally pay his debts or surrender himself to the police and the courts? Tilda Swinton, as the cheeky detective, wonderfully embodies the authoritarian order of the class system that Doyle left behind, only to catch up with him again.

The further the story develops, the more surreal it becomes. This is definitely the most rewarding aspect of this opulently aestheticized opus about the profound fall of a lonely, lost man. As mysterious boats creak like ghosts through Macau Bay, sacks of money suddenly appear, and slapstick chases ensue through the basements of the hotel industry, the overly predictable plot offers a few surprises and truly wonderful visual sequences.

Edward Berger stages everything with a lurid and fast-paced approach. Colin Farrell gives a superb performance as the insecure refugee who has gambled away his luck, yet is also a manically self-confident gambler with no tomorrow in his sights. But even though Farrell gives it his all, whether he's aggressively shaking and bending playing cards to see what hand he's holding, or, pale and sweating after a binge in his hotel room, vomiting into the champagne bucket before he physically collapses, this character of the helpless con man on the brink of his downfall unfortunately doesn't really get any real depth. "Ballad of a Small Player" is a colorful film, telling a lurid story with plenty of bright facades, but that's about it.

"Ballad of a Small Player," USA/Germany 2025. Directed by Edward Berger. Starring: Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton, Alex Jennings. 101 min. Release: October 16.