‘Ballad of a Small Player’: Colin Farrell’s Netflix Gambling Thriller Is a Losing Hand

With a dainty mustache, a collection of colorful suits, an ascot around his neck, and yellow “Savile Row” gloves that he considers good luck, Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) has a swanky panache that, as one acquaintance remarks, makes him look like a “show off.”

The same can be said about Ballad of a Small Player, All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave director Edward Berger’s tale of an inveterate gambler on the run from both debtors and himself. Stylized to the hilt but empty inside, it faithfully echoes the harried shallowness of its protagonist, whose desperate search for one big score to reverse his fortunes is all surface, no substance—the cinematic equivalent of a knock-off Rolex.

Debonair and cocky, Lord Doyle resembles a caricature of a high-roller.

Ballad of a Small Player,