In September 2021, “To Whom You Forgive,” the film adaptation of a novel by Lawrence Osborne, celebrated its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival: Directed by John Michael McDonagh (“You're Dead on Sunday”), Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain embody a wealthy married couple who are on the way to an opulent party in the Moroccan mountains killing locals. Given the material and those involved, “Those You Forgive” was previously considered a potential Oscar hope. But after a less than enthusiastic reception, the awards ambitions were quickly history again. Instead, the film was only released directly as a streaming subscription in Germany with a delay of around two years.
Four years later, “Ballad Of A Small Player” is the second adaptation of an Osborne novel. The fact that this was once again considered a promising Oscar candidate was less due to the material this time, but rather due to the German director Edward Berger. After all, his previous films All All Quiet in the West and Conclave combined for five Oscars and 17 nominations. But then the reviews in Telluride and Toronto were even more mixed. Nobody has to worry about a long wait this time. The surreal thriller drama is sure to have a prominent streaming launch as a Netflix production.
In the novel, they were yellow children's gloves that Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) always carries with him as a good luck charm. But that would probably have been too weird in a film.
The self-proclaimed high roller Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) only has three days to pay his hotel bill of around 40,000 euros. Otherwise, he would face not only being kicked out of his suite, but also being banned from casinos throughout Macau. With his eye-catching yellow driving gloves, which he always wears for good luck when playing cards, he returns to the tables to literally gamble for his life at baccarat.
Lord Doyle is actually not a lord at all. Instead, he ran away with his customers' money from Great Britain, which is why, in addition to the hotel management, private investigator Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) is now breathing down his neck. While Doyle spends his last banknotes in a duel with a millionaire's wife (Deanie Ip), the moneylender Dao Ming (Fala Chen) offers him to join his game as a partner for a fee. In fact, Doyle's luck seems to change at some point. But nothing is as it seems…
Pure overwhelming
To make it clear: Based on the synopsis, one could easily get the idea that “Ballad Of A Small Player” is a crook thriller in which everyone involved tricks each other in the most tricky way possible (and as entertainingly as possible for the audience). But puff cake! Instead, the high-speed journey through hell is essentially reminiscent of stylish addictive films à la “Trainspotting”, in which you are repeatedly pulled out of your seat by euphoric surges before the impact in reality is only more painful each time. The fake Lord Doyle may make sure his silk tie fits correctly, but he's sweating like a pig as soon as he steps up to the baccarat table.
Without the casino setting, one would immediately believe that Colin Farrell (“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey”) is simply portraying a – admittedly very well-dressed – junkie who is frantically looking for the next shot. While Tilda Swinton, as a bizarre private detective with an even more bizarre wig, always seems like a foreign body left over from a Wes Anderson production, it is “Godzilla x Kong” star Fala Chen who, as Dao Ming, opens up a whole new direction for the film – as a painfully tragic, deeply melancholic (ghost) story.
Only with the appearance of the helpful credit broker Dao Ming (Fala Chen) does Lord Doyle's luck slowly seem to turn around…
But this potential punch in the stomach largely fails to have any effect because Edward Berger previously failed to intersperse subtle nuances into his production, which relies solely on (luxury) bombast. This is almost reminiscent of the strategies of the casinos themselves, where everything from the lights to the glittering and flashing to the music is coordinated to overwhelm the guests (i.e. get them to play). “Ballad Of A Small Player” consistently relies on high-gloss surface appeal right from the start – with the non-stop, towering score by Oscar winner Volker Bertelmann (“Nothing New on the West”) as a universal weapon used indiscriminately.
But when it's time to turn the corner and crawl beneath the surface, it's too late: you're already so drugged up and oversaturated that you lose interest in the protagonist before his nightmarish (hero's) journey has even really begun…
Conclusion: “The Ballad Of A Small Player” adapts a little too well to its opulent casino setting, as Edward Berger still relies on a high-gloss facade even when we have long since recognized what might still be bubbling under the glittering surface.
We saw “The Ballad Of A Small Player” at the Hamburg Film Festival 2025.