{"id":188629,"date":"2025-08-31T04:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T04:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/188629\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T04:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T04:00:12","slug":"edward-berger-directs-colin-farrell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/188629\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Berger Directs Colin Farrell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn the opening moments of Edward Berger<\/a>\u2018s new film, Ballad Of A Small Player<\/a>, Colin Farrell<\/a>, as a con man hiding from his past in Macau, groggily tries to climb out of bed, rubbing his eyes, and simply says, \u201cOh, f*ck!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is a great beginning, even if it did remind me of myself after the alarm rudely awakened me at 7:30 a.m. for this 9:00 a.m. screening after being up until 2:15 a.m. writing my Hamnet review. Nevertheless, it got my attention and this wild ride of a movie, which had its World Premiere this weekend at the Telluride<\/a> Film Festival, had me addicted at hello.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is in fact about a guy who is an addict \u2014 not drugs, but gambling. He is carrying on in Macau, China\u2019s answer to Las Vegas but probably ten times as intense, as a \u201cBritish aristocrat\u201d named Lord Doyle. He is anything but, and has been on a severe losing streak, virtually down to nothing and now presented with a hotel bill for $145,000 HKD with only three days to pay. This thief and con man by trade knows he can\u2019t get in trouble or lose his false identity because he is seriously running from the law back home in the U.K., where he cost an older woman all of her considerable savings, all of which he apparently blew on Baccarat, his game of choice.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnable to afford even an Uber, the valet suggests another hotel which still might offer him credit, even if it sounds a bit shady. He goes there and makes a deal with Dao Ming, a savvy employee who actually has much in common with Doyle, but a sharper grasp on her life. They bond, but as Doyle goes back to the tables, it appears much hasn\u2019t changed. In a quick repeated shot, we see someone who appears to be him walk straight out the window and jump. Later, in the parking lot, it is shown not to be him but another gambler who landed flat on a car, dead, with his wife hysterically blaming Dao Ming for loaning him money to continue his habit.<\/p>\n

\n\tInto the picture comes Britisher Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton<\/a>), looking like a tourist but stalking Doyle. He knows her number and accuses her \u2013 correctly as it turns out \u2013 of being a private eye sent to get his photo and give him a matter of 24 hours to come up with the cash he bilked out of the woman. The cat-and-mouse game between this pair begins as he needs to get out of Macau or face arrest, the best way being to take a boat across the channel to Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Berger\u2019s (Conclave, All Quiet on the Western Front) frenetic and at times psychedelic style, Doyle is spinning out of control, desperate, with increasing levels of sweat and angst, paying a visit to a fellow con artist, Adrian Lippett (Alex Jennings), who owes him $8,000. He gets only $2,000 but at a dinner, Lippett cries poor and stiffs Doyle with the check, taking him back to zero. He just can\u2019t win, can he? BTW, it isn\u2019t the end of Lippett in the story crafted by Rowan Joffe from Lawrence Osborne\u2019s novel, and his reappearance drew a big laugh in my Telluride audience. And the tide does finally turn for Doyle, who suddenly maneuvers a win streak like no other (the final drawn-out unveiling of a winning card is suspensefully played out to the absurd max), leading to a grotesque one-man-food-eating-and-money-stashing-orgy in his hotel room. Or did it?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe questions about all of this, right from the start, are: What is real, and what isn\u2019t? Is it all a dream, the hallucinations of an addict? Was it Doyle who did jump? Are any of these characters real, or just in the imagination of a crumbling gambler falling deeper into the rabbit hole \u00e0 la Burt Lancaster\u2019s slow mental breakdown in The Swimmer? Berger and Jaffe make it all a fun guessing game, but it is Farrell living Doyle\u2019s twisted personality, who makes us have some empathy and root for his redemption. This is a tour de force performance, one of the best screen outings for the actor who, after his Emmy nomination for another tour de force as Penguin, is on a roll. He carries this film like Newman in The Hustler, Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, McQueen in The Cincinnati Kid. You can\u2019t take your eyes off him.<\/p>\n

\n\tSwinton as usual is wonderful in a role created for the film that wasn\u2019t in the book. Her negotiations with Doyle are hilarious, and his responses are priceless, even suggesting they go to the ballroom and \u201cdance.\u201d Not to give anything away, but this is one movie where the payoff for that suggestion means Netflix won\u2019t be able to cut off the end credits for a change.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe real find here may be Fala Chen<\/a> who makes Dao Ming complex, alluring, fascinating and heartbreaking all at once. She and Farrell have great chemistry, but it might be she can\u2019t save him or herself despite good intentions as she describes her own life in an effort to help him. Another highlight is seeing Hong Kong acting icon, Deanie Ip having a ton of fun as \u201cGrandma,\u201d a billionaire old lady who just loves her Baccarat and constantly wins against the hapless Doyle, promising to collect \u201chis balls\u201d as she lures him into just one more game. It is a deliciously fun extended cameo.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother star here is Macau itself, making this the first major foreign production allowed to shoot in the intriguing island where this gaudy Vegas-y city exists like a mirage from across the isle in a monsoon-soaked companion village that houses the Portuguese immigrants. Macau here really seems like an illusion, a Chinese Brigadoon that maybe was there or wasn\u2019t for Lord Doyle. Cinematographer James Friend captures all of it with brilliant color and fast-moving camera work. Some shots are stunning, especially one overhead of a huge but empty cafe where Doyle is the only customer, a perfect example of the loneliness this city produces, despite its fantastical promise of great wealth. Costumes by Lisy Christl and ace production design by Jonathan Houlding add to the visual splendor. Volker Bertelmann\u2019s dramatic scoring also tells us much is not subtle in this lost world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOh F*ck!\u201d indeed.<\/p>\n

\n\tProducers are Mike Goodridge, Berger and Matthew James Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

\n\tTitle: <\/strong>Ballad Of A Small Player
Festival: <\/strong>Telluride Film Festival<\/a>
Distributor: <\/strong>Netflix
Release Date: <\/strong>In select theaters Oct. 15; streaming Oct. 29
Director: <\/strong>Edward Berger
Screenplay: <\/strong>Rowan Joffe
Cast: <\/strong>Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton, Fala Chen, Deanie Ip, Alex Jennings
Running Time: <\/strong>1 hour and 41 minutes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the opening moments of Edward Berger\u2018s new film, Ballad Of A Small Player, Colin Farrell, as a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":188630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[94867,92995,92996,171,105581,53,104192,104193,92998,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-188629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ballad-of-a-small-player","9":"tag-colin-farrell","10":"tag-edward-berger","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fala-chen","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-telluride","15":"tag-telluride-film-festival","16":"tag-tilda-swinton","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115121384592615363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}