Last year audiences were thrilled by the fictionalized look at the inner workings of choosing a new pope in Conclave — one of the best movies of 2024, in our opinion — and now director Edward Berger is back with an offering for the 2025 movie calendar. Colin Farrell stars in Ballad of a Small Player as a gambling addict who’s offered a lifeline when it comes time to pay his debts, and critics have shared their views as the psychological thriller hits streaming.
Ballad of a Small Player saw a limited run in theaters before premiering on the Netflix schedule on October 29, so as it hits streaming, let’s see if this is one we’ll be adding to our watchlist. Jacob Oller of AV Club gives it a C, saying its gambling fable is “garish” and “clichéd,” while Farrell’s Lord Doyle is underdeveloped, forcing the actor to overcompensate. The critic continues:
The script is all but on its knees pleading for us to spot it a bit of goodwill, to give its supernatural side a chance. But as Doyle becomes increasingly haunted by his thumping heart, murmuring voices, and bad VFX, viewers become haunted by this Netflix adaptation’s low opinion of its audience. The head-clobbering telegraphing of the script seems designed for those only glancing occasionally at the screen.
Barry Levitt of Empire gives it 2 stars out of 5, saying that while Colin Farrell is great and the film is a visual treat, Ballad of a Small Player is “an impenetrable story of redemption that’s both too obvious and too baffling.” Levitt writes:
Rowan Joffé’s screenplay, adapting the unwieldy novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne, brings diminishing results, crafting a world so convoluted — complete with a twist you can see a mile off — that it never gives you a moment to understand Doyle. There’s not enough to him. Everyone else fares even worse. Giving Tilda Swinton such a paper-thin character is unforgivable.
David Ehrlich of IndieWire writes that it sounds like a decent premise on paper, but ultimately the movie is like its main character — defeated and desperate for a win. He also grades it a C and says:
Berger’s film is so desperate for a win that it loses any real sense of what the stakes are. Despite promising a welcome throwback to the sort of down-and-out milieu that authors like Graham Greene once put on the map, this Lawrence Osborne adaptation winds up feeling like nothing so much as a quintessential Netflix movie: Easy to watch and impossible to care about.
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gives it just 1.5 out of 4 stars, calling it one of the most over-directed movies he’s ever seen. Considering the work Colin Farrell and Edward Berger have each done in their careers, this one will not be held in esteem (through no fault of Farrell’s, however). Tallerico says:
From its opening shots, it aggressively and pretentiously shows viewers all its cards, stubbornly unwilling to delve deeper than its attention-starved aesthetic, overcooked score, and characters who are constantly aware of who they are and what they need. There’s a difference between leaning into the tropes of the ‘gambler who needs one last win’ genre and cravenly, blatantly propping them up as if they’re new again. Colin Farrell has become one of the best actors of his generation, and Berger hit back-to-back with All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave, which makes this misfire all the more shocking.
Peter Debruge of Variety agrees that the movie becomes tiresome, as Colin Farrell is nearly smothered by Edward Berger’s direction — with either a high-def camera shoved into the actor’s pores or shot from so far away he’s nothing more than a speck, the critic says. Debruge continues:
It’s no fault of Farrell’s. The actor is fully committed to this anxious caricature of a man who doesn’t know when to call it quits, but Doyle’s psychology is all over the map. Compared with great portraits of people dominated by their gambling compulsion — Bay of Angels, Bob le Flambeur, Mississippi Grind, The Cooler — Ballad of a Small Player looks great, but lacks the fundamental human insight to make it a winner.
The critics seem to agree that Colin Farrell gives it his all in Ballad of a Small Player, but as a follow-up to Academy Award Best Picture nominees All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave, this is a disappointment from director Edward Berger.
There were some positives, however, including the neon color palette, bold cinematography and music, so If you’re intrigued by the film, don’t let these reviews stop you. Ballad of a Small Player comes to Netflix on Wednesday, October 29.