Ballad of a Small Player

Brimming with mystery and awash in atmospherics, this seductive character study from Oscar-winning director Edward Berger (Conclave, TIFF ’24) stars Oscar nominee Colin Farrell as a travelling gambler and Oscar winner Tilda Swinton as the dogged detective determined to track him down.

In his green velvet suit and kid gloves, with his pencil moustache and posh accent, Lord Freddy Doyle (Farrell) plays the part of the international high roller, living the lush life at a luxury hotel in Macao. But a closer look suggests Doyle’s situation is more desperate than it appears. He’s behind on his room payments, can’t find a casino that will give him credit, and he’s deep in debt to a dubious local character. Doyle came to Macao because here, as a “foreign ghost” who no one knows, he can reinvent himself. But Cynthia Blithe (Swinton) knows who he really is — and what he’s running from. A sympathetic casino hostess (Fala Chen, also at the Festival in Lucky Lu) may be able to help Doyle escape his mounting problems. But is there anywhere left for him to go?

Adapted from Lawrence Osborne’s 2014 novel by Rowan Joffe (Before I Go to Sleep), Ballad of a Small Player hovers enticingly on the frontier between realism and dream. Reuniting with his Oscar-winning All Quiet On the Western Front cinematographer James Friend, Berger captures his settings in an array of startling colours and textures. But the most alluring is easily Farrell, whose face and gestures gradually reveal the contours of Doyle’s lost soul, taking us on a haunting journey of addiction and possible redemption.

ANITA LEE