Ballad of a Small Player

Plot

Lord Doyle is an wealthy British aristocrat and also a gambling addict, who is living it up in Macao. He is told by the hotel he is staying that he has three days (due to the weekend and a public holiday on the Monday in his native London) to pay the $300k HK bill or the police will be called.

He also discovers that he is being spied on by the mysterious Cynthia – as she believes he is really the Irish Brendan Reilly – a conman – who has stolen almost $1m from an elderly woman.

Now he must try his luck to win big, to pay his debts.

Direction

Directed by Edward Berger, Director of All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

The direction is colourful, and utilises the beauty of Macao well. It only really shows the more ‘modern’ Macao – mostly focusing on the new, rather than the old.

Some moments do play out in the peaceful countryside, which adds a sense of calm after moments of chaos.

I loved some of his camera work, especially during some of the game play that focused on the characters hands.

I also loved the score by Volker Bertelmann!

Cast/Characters

Colin Farrell plays Brendan “Lord Doyle” Reilly. He is solid as always – but I’ve seen him do so much better in the past. I thought at one stage his ‘false’ British accent was fading in favour of his natural Irish one, but his character is the Irish one… so it’s Reilly doing the fake British accent!

Tilda Sinton is the standout of the film as the investigator  Cynthia Blythe – who has been hired to find Reilly.

Other cast are Fala Chen (as Dao-Ming) a credit broker Reilly meets and has a brief romance with, and Deanie Ip as the ‘grandma’ that Reilly gambles against.

Breakdown

The film gets quite a lot right in most of the technical aspects, as well as some of the performances (especially Swinton). It is some of the narrative points that it gets wrong.

First, the character of Reilly/Doyle – isn’t really good enough to be considered an anti hero. He has stolen almost a million dollars, plus owes hundred of thousands to the hotel before we even meet him. Almost nothing he does throughout the film could be even considered redeeming. He is often times inebriated, and gorges himself constantly on the beauty around him. He is almost the beast within the beauty.

The relationship between himself and Dao Ming is written oddly too, as within the first 25 minutes of the film she has already found solace in his company. Then the end of movie revelation that she was dead for most of the film leaves more questions than we get answers. Why did she unalive herself? Why did she leave him the code to her fortune. How did he find her hut if she was dead all along?

The film also has more bizarre moments skewed reality for Reilly, as he occasionally sees a monster in his reflection. This is never resolved, as in the final arc of the film he pays his debts after winning big (and supposedly with a ghost helping him according to the casino bosses?). The final act of his ‘redemption’ where he burns the money, either as a symbolic way to let go, or as an offering to Dao Ming who has passed on. Either way, it was dumb.

Overall

Despite my downs in the narrative, this was an exceptionally pretty film to watch. The settings of the native, and the modern Macao are breathtaking, and the direction was on point – with a brilliant score.

The biggest up however is Tilda Swinton, who still manages to make herself into something completely different in every film she appears.

Would I watch again? No. But I’d still recommend it.

3.5/5

Please check out my Podcast, where we discuss this film