The arrival of "Ballad of a Small Player" officially marks the beginning of the time of year when Netflix starts trotting out its award season movies. There are a few to keep an eye out for next month, including Academy Award-winner Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein" and multiple Academy Award-nominee Richard Linklater's "Nouvelle Vague." But first comes this new psychological thriller from Academy Award winner Edward Berger, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne.
At first glance, you'd expect this to be a smash hit. Berger's past two films, "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Conclave," have been Best Picture contenders and won multiple Oscars. The trailer oozes style, set to Academy Award-winner Volker Bertelmann's take on Beethoven in a thunderous score.
But that trailer depicts a film that the final product doesn't deliver. In the trailer, less than 30 seconds in, it's revealed to us that Colin Farrell's Lord Doyle is a charlatan, really named Mr. Reilly, and he's a thief on the run from Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) after stealing a lot of money. From there, the trailer sets up a frantic 24-hour-long bid to secure enough funds to pay back Cynthia.
The film, though, totally lacks this propulsive pacing. In fact, the reveal of Mr. Reilly's true nature isn't until somewhere between one-third to halfway through the movie, and I was stunned to see the trailer reveal this twist. The way the movie is constructed, you know something is up with Farrell's Lord Doyle from the jump, but the trailer gives away his lecherous past like it's a mere afterthought.
Not even Colin Farrell can save ‘Ballad of a Small Player’
Farrell's performance as Doyle/Reilly is the strongest aspect of "Ballad of a Small Player." He manages to switch between the genteel but unraveling Lord Doyle and the totally at the end of his tether Reilly with ease and you're genuinely drawn into rooting for his character in the film's climactic moments, even if he makes questionable decisions that disappoint you along the way.
But the manner in which the rest of the cast is utilized is a bit baffling. Dao Ming (Fala Chen) is an employee in one of Macau's darker casinos, and she offers Doyle a chance at redemption on more than one occasion in the movie. However, there's a familiarity between their characters from the jump that feels unearned, given the movie makes it clear that they're only just meeting each other for the first time in their first on-screen interaction.
Then there's the aforementioned Cynthia Blithe, a private investigator who we learn is chasing down Reilly to recover money he stole from an old lady. Given that the movie is seemingly set around their game of cat-and-mouse, and that Doyle/Reilly catches that she's after him almost immediately, it's odd that her introduction is saved for as deep in the film as it is. Frankly, the way the trailer is cut makes far more sense for her character than the way she's used in the movie.
Ultimately, "Ballad of a Small Player" struggles to decide what tone to take. There are clear elements of a psychological thriller — hallucinations, dream sequences, etc. — but the trailer and the film's final act feel much more like a taut action thriller, focusing on Reilly's race to save himself and get the money he so desperately needs. Each version of this movie has its moments, particularly a final game of baccarat in a Macau casino with everything on the line. But neither a few gripping moments nor Farrell's compelling performance is enough to save this movie from being a bit of an incoherent mess.
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