This review contains major spoilers, so be sure to watch the film before reading!
Ballad of a Small Player (2025), directed by Edward Berger, follows Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell), a gambler trapped in Macau with nowhere to go, aiming for that one big win to clear his debts and reinvent himself.
Berger’s second collaboration with Netflix, following his success with All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), which won four Oscar categories, is a film of two halves—one very strong half that shows promise, and a second half that takes a sharp turn and doesn’t quite resonate.
In the first half, Berger has fun in Macau, this gambler’s paradise, following the delusion that Doyle believes—if he can get that so-called big win, then everything will go back to running smoothly.
Berger has Doyle dig his own grave: the debts grow, and the odds seem even bigger. However, in an almost sick way, that is the thrill, it’s all about odds, his might be small, but small odds are better than none.
You start to believe that he can turn it around, even if he can’t, just because of how confident he is in this belief. I loved the dark humor of it, of someone thinking they can get out even though they are in the quicksand of their own making.
It’s important to give mention to the cinematographer James Friend, who captures the vibrancy of Macau, ensuring this location becomes its own character—the bright casinos then contrast with the slums more prominent in the second half of the film.
When you get to that second half, where Ballad of a Small Player tries to develop a character journey that wasn’t even there in the first place.
As Doyle finds a friend in Dao Ming (Fala Chen), whom he meets at Rainbow Casino after he is cleared out by Grandma (Deanie lp). Similar to Doyle, she has debts and offers credit, so of course, she owes credit to people. The twist is that, actually, she drowned herself; it’s been her spirit that Doyle has been interacting with him to make him realize he’s got enough, you don’t need to gamble everything.
Oldly, it reminded me of Clarence (Henry Travers) and George Bailey (James Stewart) from It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), but the difference is that the groundwork was there, while here it isn’t.
Now, Ballad of Small Player is based on the same novel by Lawrence Osborne; it has a ghost twist, so you could argue that this isn’t a massive turn; Berger is simply following the book.
However, what Berger presents here with Doyle is that gambling is a thrill for him, and even then, with Dao Ming’s spirit, she helps Doyle achieve a big win in the second half, as all the casinos in the area blacklisted Doyle because the staff had seen a spirit next to him on camera.
Ultimately, it made me go, “What is the journey of growth? I am meant to see here with Doyle when he hasn’t even started it? How am I meant to believe it?” That second half just doesn’t work for me. Berger slowed a lot of momentum from the first thrilling half.
Farrell is great as Lord Doyle, even though he is an idiot who keeps making the same mistakes. You can’t help but root for him. He is charming, charismatic, and confident, as seen in his interactions with the people in the casinos, including the concierge at his hotel, where he is staying. He clearly has respect for ‘the little guy,’ the people who are just trying to get on; that’s why he is drawn towards Dao Ming. She just needs a big win, that one break.
Fala Chen brings a great sense of warmth to Dao Ming, making you understand why Lord Doyle is drawn towards her. Even though you can guess straight away that it’s a spirit, Fala Chen plays it as if she is in the room and has a liveliness that doesn’t make her come across as a passing ghost. She accepts Doyle for being the mess that he is and has her own awareness that she equally messed up, so there is that camaraderie between these two.
Tilda Swinton rounds out the cast as Blithe, a PI sent to find Lord Doyle by one of the debtors he owes money to. I like the performance, especially because she can smell bull straight away, despite seeming a little clunky or awkward. She makes a lot of rookie mistakes that make you question whether she has actually investigated anything before, but actually, that makes Swinton’s performance work.
Clearly, Swinton knows she is playing someone who isn’t exactly there. As a result, Doyle underestimates her, which, for a gambler, shouldn’t be underestimated. Anything or anyone Swinton uses that element really well with Blithe, someone who knows they aren’t rated but knows how to get the job done—they have that grit.
With a promising first half in Ballad of a Small Player, the sharp turn that is taken in the second half causes the film to be a mix-match. Like Doyle, I almost wished we had just stayed in the casinos and preferred not to have taken the turn.
Review Courtesy of Matthew Allan
Feature Image Credit to Netflix via The Guardian