Edward Berger seeks to extend a red-hot streak that began in 2022 with his reinterpretation of war classic All Quiet on the Western Front and continued just last year with Conclave, both of which scored Best Picture nominations at their respective Academy Awards and took home other trophies on the evening. Adapting Lawrence Osborne's novel for the screen this time round, Ballad of a Small Player goes into the game with a strong hand, but like a house of cards and a gust of wind, it collapses under the pressure.
Lying low in Macau, a high-stakes gamblers' past finally catches up with him, and the debts and enemies he has made on the way need their retribution. Starring Farrell with a supporting turn from Tilda Swinton, it is genuinely quite disappointing that Ballad of a Small Player is unable to cash in its chips for something of value, with so many strong individual elements unable to find the rich payoff they arguably deserve.
A beautifully-mounted and slickly-executed production, Ballad boasts excellent production design, stunning light and vibrant costuming, captured strikingly by James Friend's cinematography, which presents the allure of Macau: a Vegas stand-in for the unsure. There's such sophistication to the below-the-line crafts, crafting a unique visual palette enriched by Volker Bertelmann's suitably tense score. On the other side of the lens, Colin Farrell commits, delivering an erratic leading turn that carefully teeters near the precipice before the inevitable descent into madness. When other crucial elements fail him, Farrell remains dedicated, anchoring the chaos with some semblance of a beating heart.
But given the vibrancy with which they are depicted, you need something to ground the chaos on, and with such a lightweight script, there is nothing to substantiate the chaos. Rowan Joffé's screenplay provides little direction and has so little to say beyond sweeping generalisations about greed, lumbering audiences with a half-baked twist and an unintentional emptiness that it wasn't speaking with greater conviction or confidence. When the screenplay cannot be stock into its characters and ideas, how is an audience member expected to? For that reason, it makes sense that Netflix has the task of distributing, where such a lightweight and unsubstantiated offering can sink into their digital catalogue moments after release unlikely to see the light of day after more than a few days of release.
Ultimately, Ballad of a Small Player is built on the weakest foundations imaginable, and all the glitz and glamour in the world can only distract for so long, and even at a relatively trim 101-minute runtime, it cannot be sustained long enough. The razzle-dazzle of Ballad of a Small Player's flashy visuals, bright costumes, and sleek production is faultless, showcasing Macau as a kaleidoscopic playground bound to swallow up the hungry as they try their luck at fame, fortune and glory. But the film is almost entirely devoid of substance beyond generic warnings of "greed is bad", and Ballad holds so little weight that it feels primed to fly away like a house of cards at any moment.