‘Ballad Of A Small Player’ review: Visually dazzling film never quite hits the emotional jackpot

Edward Berger makes a dramatic and thematic shift from his previous movie Conclave with Ballad of a Small Player. Conclave was a taut, fictional feature about the secretive papal elections at the Vatican. Ballad of a Small Player, which is out on Netflix, is an occasionally tense, atmospheric and over-stylised character study set in Macau’s glittering gambling halls.

Adapted by screenwriter Rowan Joffe from Lawrence Osborne’s 2014 novel, the film explores cycles of addiction and greed against a backdrop of ritual, superstition and neon decadence. Colin Farrell plays Lord Doyle, a British gambler with mounting debts and a troubled past.

He’s anything but a small player. Moving restlessly between tables, Doyle is drawn to chance and is perpetually on the run. Farrell gives a sharp, feverish performance, capturing Doyle’s alternating charm and desperation, sweating profusely as the odds close in.

The actor holds back just enough even in moments of gluttony, moral collapse and epiphany, embodying a man who can’t stop chasing a win he knows will destroy him, somebody who can no longer distinguish reality from illusion.

The visual language mirrors that inner chaos. Cinematographer James Friend shoots Macau with a mix of allure and unease: glassy reflections, gaudy fountains, endless casino floors, tight close-ups, quiet waterfronts and the constant pulse of...

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