Ballad of a Small Player
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
When we meet Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) in the opening scene of BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER, he's waking from a hell of a night in a suite at the Wynn Macau. Did he win a fortune or lose one?
Only the amount of alcohol consumed and the disarray of the upscale room are certain. The TV blares, stacks of room service trays cover every table and it looks like Lord Doyle has been in the room awhile.
Farrell dazzles in the opening sequence, carving out a mysterious character who's living life on the edge. We soon learn that he's nearing the ends of his funds.
The hotel manager grabs him even though Lord Doyle is doing his damndest to escape the luxurious property. He's told that he has three days to settle his hotel bill, a stunning $300k+ dollars, or the police will be called.
The only money that we know he has left is one rolled up stash.
Will he turn that into wins?
Will he rise triumphant?
This isn't a stereotypical film about an underdog beating the odds.
It's an intelligent, mysterious and mystical take on addiction, luck, questions about the ability to change your true nature and a man on the absolute brink.
Farrell (The Penguin, Minority Report) is truly up to the task and beyond.
Behind the camera, Director Edward Berger follows up his massive hit "Conclave" with this spiritual character study that took so many unexpected turns, I stopped trying to predict where it was going. That's a great attribute, as I was absorbed into this world and Lord Doyle's impossible path.
Macau looks like another planet, stunningly photographed by James Friend, who also shot Berger's 2022 breakout film "All Quiet on the Western Front".
It feels like Las Vegas in the future, captured in all its luxury and decadence.
As Lord Doyle runs toward either redemption or complete collapse, he meets Dao Ming (Fala Chen) a floor manager of one of the seedier casinos in town. He loses hand after hand, thousands of dollars escaping his clutches. He can't even pay for his bar tab, something they would have been happy to pick up if he was winning.
Lord Doyle and Dao Ming spend the majority of the film circling each other, but across many different arcs. Need, seduction, opportunity, redemption seem to be hanging in the air around these two from the moment they meet on screen.
Hot on his trail, Insurance Investigator Blithe (Tilda Swinton) knows far more about Lord Doyle than we do. Swinton and Farrell have a blast bouncing off each other in a cat & mouse game that seems bound to only end in one way.
But the film is far more complicated and tricky than that.
Lives and characters intertwine.
Fortune makes strange dance partners.
It often seems that Lord Doyle is just as likely to die from a massive heart attack or a jump out of a high window as he is to get arrested.
I'm not going to reveal anything in the film's clever puzzle of a last hour, other than it had me glued to the screen with zero clue of what would happen next.
I loved where it went.
Farrell is at the absolute peak of his game here, creating a very complex, scared, ballsy man whose back is up against every surrounding wall. It's a great performance that's far more complex in retrospect than it feels in the moment. He's extraordinary.
I loved Alan K. Chang as Kai, the doorman who only wants Lord Doyle to succeed, Jason Tobin as Mr. Huang the hotel manager nearly a half million down to Lord Doyle's excesses and Alex Jennings (The Queen) as Adrian, a fellow traveler and confidant of Lord Doyle's who has demons of his own.
Is there a key to unlock Lord Doyle's redemption?
It's a pleasure to find out in this clever, deliberate and fascinating crime thriller/drama/character study that wraps you in the sweat, beauty and seduction of Macau and never lets go.
THE BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER flips an A.
Comments