Ballad of a Small Player (2025)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- A high-stakes gambler decides to lay low in Macau after his past and debts catch up with him. Along the way he encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.
- Actors:
- Colin Farrell, Fala Chen, Tilda Swinton, Alex Jennings, Jason Tobin, Adrienne Lau, Alan K. Chang, Deannie Yip, Margaret Cheung
- Directors:
- Edward Berger
- Producers:
- Edward Berger, Mike Goodridge, Matthew James Wilkinson
- Writers:
- Rowan Joffe, Lawrence Osborne
- Genres:
- Drama, Thrillers
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Reviews (1) of Ballad of a Small Player
All Bets Blur at Midnight - Ballad of a Small Player review by griggs
There’s a woozy charm to this one that drew me in straight away. The whole thing feels like falling into a velvet-lined rabbit hole: humid colours, drifting camerawork, and a sense that reality has decided to take the night off. It’s a heady mix—Uncut Gems by way of a midnight fairy tale—yet it never lands the emotional punch it aims for.
Edward Berger shapes a rich character study of desperation and bad bets before the film drifts into a tidy morality tale that clashes with its dreamier instincts. You can feel it reaching for something deeper, only for the final stretch to shrug it all away. Something essential slips through the cracks.
Still, Colin Farrell steadies the whole thing with a wounded, oddly tender turn, while Tilda Swinton glides through like a reassuring apparition. I only wish Fala Chen had more space to shape her character. An intoxicating film of big moods and grand gestures that fades the moment the lights come up.