“Ballad of a Small Player”: What Will Colin Farrell Bring to the Screen?

Colin Farrell will be back headlining on the silver screen in October, as the release of “Ballad of a Small Player” hits the UK on the 15th. The movie, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Edward Berger, is an atmospheric study of an obsessive gambler, known as Lord Doyle, who heads to the popular gambling destination Macao to hide in the shadows.

The movie is adapted from the novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne, which is a fascinating tale of risk and obsessive gambling. In that regard, the story provides a cautionary tale about the potential pitfalls of gambling. Most people nowadays gamble remotely at legal online casinos instead of at physical locations, where responsible gambling practices are promoted. While enticing offers like 10 or 20 free spins can be found at many reputable platforms, operators also make tools like deposit and bet limits available to players to help support safer experiences of gambling control.

But control is something that the protagonist Lord Doyle doesn’t have in “Ballad of a Small Player”, which leads not only to his debts catching up with him, but his past is never far away from him either. Even though he has fled to Macao to become a “foreign ghost”, someone knows he is there and they are actively searching for him.

About Lord Doyle

Main character Lord Doyle, a disgraced former lawyer who has run off to Macau, is a fraud, desperately seeking a chance to reinvent himself. Why? He escapes to the east with money that he has embezzled from a senior citizen back home, and because he has basically run out of options there, as he can no longer get credit at casinos and is recognisable, he attempts to fly under the radar by heading to a location where he can still get his gambling fix.

Being deeply flawed, Doyle arrives in Macau, often dubbed the Las Vegas of China, and a city where opulence runs wild. He puts on the facade of being a rich man to try to escape his past, someone who lives a life of luxury and completes that image with a dapper dress and a posh accent. In reality, however, Doyle shuffles around low-budget hotels in the city and is constantly recovering from nights of excess.

Other Main Characters

Cynthia Blithe, played by the brilliant Tilda Swinton, is an investigative reporter who is hot on his tail and represents Doyle’s past catching up with him. She’s employed by financiers who want their money back from Doyle, and she’s ready to confront him about why he is running and what he is running from.

Another interesting angle comes in the form of the character Dao Ming (Fala Chen), who works in one of the Macau casinos that Doyle frequents. She’s sweet-talking and takes a liking to him, apparently latching on to his “lost soul” vibe, and there is a hint that she could ultimately be his salvation and way out of his troubles.

However, despite saving him on a few occasions, it always comes at a cost, and his interactions with Dao Ming blur the lines between reality and otherworldly. She gives him help, but it isn’t always the greatest form of aid, as Ming tends to keep feeding Doyle the things that keep him in his rut.

Macau

The movie is visually striking, the city shot in ways that bring it to life and almost become a character in its own right. Doyle naturally wouldn’t be the only person there undergoing such struggles, and as the movie offers an aesthetic that’s a futuristic dreamscape, viewers may be left wondering if it’s all real or not.

Macau looks fantastic and vibrant in the movie, and it ends up being in direct competition for the lead role. In its belly of lavish dreams and flashing lights, is the very hollow Doyle, who is strangely a character that movie-goers may battle with building a connection to.

He’s shallow, in-your-face, and desperately lacking moral and philosophical insights in his actions, which always seem to keep him sliding downwards. He’s such a shallow character that his outcomes at the baccarat table can feel meaningless, and just as he is searching for redemption, which often feels half-hearted, viewers have to search for something to care about on his journey.

Worth a Watch or Not?

For anyone familiar with “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, or even “Leaving Las Vegas”, they may be curious enough to dip into this one, but it will come with far fewer stakes and thrills than the former flicks.

It’s well worth watching for Macau because it’s been shot brilliantly. As for the story itself, moviegoers will quickly understand why Doyle is running, why he is being hunted, but nothing really happens to draw anyone deep enough to care about where the movie, and subsequently Doyle, ends up.