When his past and his debts start to catch up with him, a high-stakes gambler laying low in Macau encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.

I like gambling movies and I generally like movies where people’s lives fall apart (copyright Bingham, my co-host from the Revisiting the Oscars podcast), so ‘Ballad of a Small Player’ should be right up my street. It follows Colin Farrell’s conman/gambling addict, who is living in Macau as ‘Lord Doyle’, drinking far too much and gambling what little money he has left as he tries to keep up with his debtors. As he finds himself involved with one local woman (Joan Chen), he is tracked down by another (Tilda Swinton), who has been sent by her employer to reclaim funds he stole in a previous life.

‘Ballad of a Small Player’ is moody and atmospheric, and there are stylistic echoes in how Edward Berger (hot off ‘Conclave’ and ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’) has filmed the movie with the Hong Kong classic ‘In the Mood for Love’, which I saw for the first time recently. It paints a picture of Macau as a place of opulence, but also a place of decay, with a gambling addict jumping to his death from a building where rich men enjoy expensive dinners – no different to any gambling setting. Very few environments have such a divergence of experience for those involved and living there.

Farrell is typically good and I liked the look and feel of the film, but the story isn’t as compelling as it could be and the ghost story elements felt a little misplaced for me. Chen and Swinton both provide solid support, representing a hope for the future and a spectre of the past, which plays into the ghost story themes, and I liked Alex Jennings as a posh Englishman operating in the same sphere as Doyle in a broadly more successful, if equally empty and superficial existence.

‘Ballad of a Small Player’ has its moments but if you’re looking for a good gambling movie, there are plenty others I’d seek out first.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Edward Berger

Starring: Colin Farrell, Fala Chen, Deanie Ip, Alex Jennings and Tilda Swinton

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt32063098/