Edward Berger’s latest film “Ballard of a Small Player”, which was released on Netflix a few weeks ago, is one of the most well-made bad films of this year. While there are several top-notch technical aspects to admire to some degree, the movie itself is quite flat and insipid in terms of story and characters, and it is also really depressing to observe how the movie wastes the diligent efforts of its undeniably talented lead performer.

The story follows the plight of Brendan Reilly (Colin Farrell), an Irish gambler who has presented himself as a high-roller named “Lord Doyle” around those expensive casinos and hotels in Macau, China. He has recently been stuck in a very problematic financial situation due to his ongoing streak of bad luck, and now he is even on the verge of getting kicked out of his current staying place as he has failed to pay those amounting bills for a while.

Nevertheless, Reilly still tries to believe that things will get much better for him once he gets a chance for reversing his current status of luck, and the early part of the film shows his several pathetic attempts around those local casinos. Not so surprisingly, he only finds himself tumbling to a much worse financial status, and then he is notified that he must pay back a considerable amount of money he stole before running away to Asia.  

Meanwhile, Reilly encounters a local female credit broker named Dao-Ming (Fala Chen), who initially seems interested in making a deal with him but then comes to have some second thought on that. Not long after one shocking incident which devastates her a lot, Reilly comes to have a little private time with her outside the city, and, as believing that she has run out of her own luck, she sincerely advises him that he should quit gambling before it is too late for him.

Of course, Reilly only ends up tumbling more along the downward spiral of his gambling addiction and then getting cornered in more than one way. Later in the story, it looks like he is finally reaching to the bottom of his pathetic human condition, but then there comes an unexpected help, and that leads him to some relaxed time for self-reflection.

As its hero goes down and down, the movie drenches itself into the night life around the casinos and hotels of Macau, and cinematographer James Friends, who won an Oscar for Berger’s previous film “All Quiet on the Western Front” (2022), did a splendid job of filling the screen with a lot of nocturnal lights and shadows. As a result, Macau in the film sometimes looks like a colorfully seductive but dangerous zone which always beckons our pitiful hero to try his luck more and more, and the overblown score by Volker Bertelmann, who also won an Oscar for “All Quiet on the Western Front”, often makes a blatant point on that.

And Colin Farell, who has now been matured into one of the most dependable movie actors of our time, is fairly effective in his character’s gradual implosion along the story. While his frequent sweaty appearance may feel like an overkill at times, Farell brings some emotional intensity to the screen, and his diligent efforts compensate for the clichéd aspects of the story from time to time. 

However, the screenplay by Rowan Joffé (He is the son of Roland Joffé, by the way), which is based on Lawrence Osborne’s 2014 novel “The Ballard of a Small Player” (Osborne also incidentally participated in the production of the film as one of its executive producers), often fails to flesh out its hero and several other crucial characters in the story. Monotonously rolling its hero from one expected narrative point to another, Joffé’s screenplay does not bring much human depth or quality to its hero, and we come to observe his plight from the distance without much care or attention. Yes, there eventually comes a point where he tries his luck a lot more than before, but we remain distant to whatever is being at stake for him, and that is the main reason why a certain plot turn around the end of the story does not have much dramatic impact for us.

Furthermore, those several substantial supporting characters are too broad or bland on the whole, and the movie seriously wastes its supporting performers as much as Farrell. While she brings a bit of warmth to the film, Fala Chen is unfortunately limited by her thin supporting role, and she and Farell sadly do not generate enough chemistry to overcome the predictable relationship development between their characters. While Tilda Swinton does not have much to do except having a little fun with Farrell during the end credits, Deanie Ip and Alex Jennings are simply fill their small respective spots as required, and Anthony Wong, whom you may remember for his memorable supporting turn in “Internal Affairs” (2002), made a brief but impressive appearance later in the film.

In conclusion, “Ballard of a Small Player” is quite dissatisfying for many bad reasons, and it is surely two or three steps down from Berger’s recent Oscar-winning film “Conclave” (2024), which I incidentally liked much more than “All Quiet on the Western Front”. He and his crew and cast members cerainly took a big chance here just like the hero of the movie, but their efforts unfortunately result in a rather boring mess, and, considering their undeniable skill and talent, I am sure that they will soon move onto something better than this thoroughly forgettable dud.