{"id":32325,"date":"2025-10-28T19:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=32325"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:08:09","slug":"ballad-of-a-small-player-features-a-dynamic-lead-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=32325","title":{"rendered":"BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER Features a Dynamic Lead Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 102 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature film is now available to stream on Netflix.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe house always wins\u201d is a popular gambling proverb that\nremains largely true. If it wasn\u2019t, then it would be unlikely that any casino\ncould remain in business. Still, that hasn\u2019t stopped numerous individuals from\ntrying to beat the odds. Most dabble just for fun, limiting themselves so that\nlosses aren\u2019t devastating. But some can\u2019t resist the thrill and potential for\nearning riches (even if it is almost mathematically impossible). The new movie Ballad\nof a Small Player<\/em> follows a desperate gambling addict hoping for a score to\nsolve all his problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) is a well-dressed, charming\nhigh-roller who bets big in various casinos across Macao, China. But while he\nclaims to be a member of British royalty who can easily pay his debts with a\ncall to his banker, the truth is murkier. He\u2019s in the hole for a massive sum,\nand the hotel manager where he is staying is demanding he pay up. Another guest\nnamed Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) appears to be tailing him as well. And\nwhile he is friendly and gives large tips, he also owes casino employee Dao\nMing (Fala Chen) for a fancy bottle of champagne he never paid for. As forces\nclose in, sweat begins to pour down Doyle\u2019s face and it becomes clear that he\nisn\u2019t who he says he is, but rather a gambling addict in so much debt that his\nwell-being is at risk. Of course, the only way he knows how to fix problems is\nto try and win it all back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first half features the desperate, fast-talking Doyle\ntrying to continue his pursuits while preventing himself from being accosted by\nvarious parties around him. It\u2019s a really fantastic performance from Farrell,\nwho captures all aspects of being obsessed with the game. We see his love,\ndesperation, fear, as well as a drinking problem, and more all on his face as\nhe continues making questionable decisions and pushing his luck towards the\nbrink. There\u2019s a lot of dark humor as well, with Swinton amusing viewers as a\npursuer who starts to admire Doyle\u2019s tenacity and Chen is likable as the\nfinancially strapped employee who also decides to help out the lead. Even small\nparts, including a high-roller called Grandma (Deanie Ip) who taunts Doyle at\nthe table, is fun to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, the photography is outstanding. The wet\nstreets of Macao bathed in neon look fantastic, as do the casino environments.\nAnd even the camera angles stand out. Doyle\u2019s game is Baccarat (and you do get\na primer on the card game so you know what\u2019s going on when it is being played),\nand there are impressive shots featuring the camera under the cards as the\nprotagonist slowly turns them over and peers at his hand. There are more wild\nshots like this, making the film visually inventive throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For most of the movie, I was hooked seeing this gambling\naddict try to survive while forces from all sides close in, but the final act\ndoes deal a bad hand. The story suggests that greed and money are the root of\nall of Doyle\u2019s problems. This is true and the sentiment is fine, but it\u2019s\nhandled in a heavy-handed and unconvincing manner. There\u2019s a moment when the\nmain character briefly gets a huge rush of joy, and one would expect this event\nto rationalize his erratic behavior and lead him down a significantly different\npath. Unfortunately, that is not what occurs. What follows feels cliched,\non-the-nose and thrown together abruptly. There is a reasoning behind his final\ndecisions, but because of what\u2019s preceded it, it doesn\u2019t feel believable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But despite not being pleased with the ending, I still\nenjoyed the movie overall. The lead performance is phenomenal and a great deal\nof the story is a thrilling adrenaline rush that effectively captures the life\nof an addict and what compels them to continue putting themselves in financial\nrisk and grave danger. Even if Ballad of a Small Player<\/em> isn’t \u201cLa\nGrande\u201d (to use a term from Baccarat), I\u2019ll still give the house the edge in my\nrating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 102 minutes This feature film is now available to stream on Netflix. \u201cThe house always wins\u201d is a popular gambling proverb that remains largely true. If it wasn\u2019t, then it would be unlikely that any casino could remain in business. Still, that hasn\u2019t stopped numerous individuals from trying to beat the odds. Most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[216,746,2244,2245,2246,2247,2251,3974,4608,5461,6251,7274,8072,14680,19204,22881],"class_list":["post-32325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-216","tag-addiction","tag-ballad-of-a-small-player","tag-ballad-of-a-small-player-movie-review","tag-ballad-of-a-small-player-netflix-review","tag-ballad-of-a-small-player-review","tag-balland-of-a-small-player-film-review","tag-casino","tag-colin-farrell","tag-deanie-ip","tag-drama","tag-falal-chen","tag-gambling","tag-netflix","tag-streaming","tag-tilda-swinton"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}