‘Ballad of a Small Player’: Luck runs out for this one

“It’s not too late for you,” Dao Ming tells Lord Doyle. These words keep echoing in his mind long after she’s gone. They linger like a whisper in the smoky casino air, a reminder that redemption is still possible. But, for a man like Doyle, who has gambled away his fortune, his name and his very sense of self, believing that is the hardest bet of all.

Welcome to ‘Ballad of a Small Player’, directed by Edward Berger, a haunting tale of greed, guilt and ghosts. It’s a story about a man who runs so far from his past that he ends up circling right back to it.

Colin Farrell plays Lord Doyle, a disgraced English banker named Reilly who has fled to Macau after embezzling money from his wealthy clients. Now living under a false name, he hides in five-star hotels and drifts through the city’s glittering casinos. His luck and time are running out, with debtors and a private investigator closing in. Just as his world threatens to collapse, he meets Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a mysterious woman carrying her own tragic secret, a story of family betrayal and regret that she shares with him one fateful night.

After a sudden, spectacular winning streak saves him from financial ruin, Doyle plans to use his fortune to make amends, starting with Dao. But he is met with a shocking truth. Dao had drowned herself the very night they met. His mysterious benefactor was a ghost all along. Her spirit, it seems, guided him toward redemption. Doyle then walks away from the tables for good and chooses to finally pay his debts, realising that some second chances are more valuable than any win.

Colin Farrell is, as always, a compelling presence. He plays his role with a lived-in authenticity. You can feel the character’s weary charm, his desperate hope and the heavy guilt. This film is, in many ways, a one-man show. Farrell’s performance is so gripping it almost hides the cracks in the story itself.

Director Edward Berger, fresh from his Oscar-winning ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, brings a moody precision to this world. Visually, the film is stunning to watch. The glowing casinos, misty nights and dazzling city lights turn Macau into a haunting dreamland. Every frame feels alive, capturing both beauty and emptiness. It is a perfect mirror of Doyle’s crumbling world.

Despite its sheen, the story doesn’t always hold up. The first hour pulls you in with its tension and atmosphere, but the second half starts to lose shape. The film teases ideas about guilt, redemption and even fate, but never fully commits to any of them. The relationship between Doyle and Dao, which could have given the film its emotional weight, feels underdeveloped.

Still, ‘Ballad of a Small Player’ stays with you. Even when the story falters, the atmosphere never does. Farrell keeps you watching, not because you expect him to win, but because you want to see how long he can keep pretending that he might.

It is a beautifully made uneven film, a mix of tragedy, ghost story and the portrait of a man running from himself. It doesn’t always hit its emotional targets, but Farrell’s haunting performance makes up for it. In the end, it doesn’t feel like a loss, but it doesn’t feel like a win either. It is a break-even sort of affair, but you can’t help thinking the cards could have fallen just a little bit better.