{"id":2093850,"date":"2025-10-15T20:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2093850"},"modified":"2025-10-15T20:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:50:09","slug":"colin-farrells-gambling-ghost-story-is-no-sure-bet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/colin-farrells-gambling-ghost-story-is-no-sure-bet\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Farrell&#8217;s gambling ghost story is no sure bet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F10%2F113527465.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--review alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n\t\t<span class=\"inline-module--review__eyebrow subsection-heading-semi__label\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tmovie review\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"inline-module--review__title subsection-heading-semi\">\n\t\t\tBALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"rating\">\n<div class=\"rating__stars\">\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--filled\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 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stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--half\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--empty\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Running time: 101 minutes. Rated R (language and suicide). In select theaters. On Netflix Oct. 29.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The first half of \u201cBallad of a Small Player,\u201d a mysterious psychodrama starring Colin Farrell, is a sexy, hyperactive, high-roller\u2019s \u201cCatch Me If You Can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for the much worse second half, well, it can\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>The uneven film from \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/09\/10\/entertainment\/conclave-review-scandalous-pope-thriller-starring-ralph-fiennes-has-shocking-twists\/\">Conclave<\/a>\u201d director Edward Berger takes a hard turn into spiritual and literary territory, which makes sense since it\u2019s based on the novel by Lawrence Osborne.<\/p>\n<p>Yet it behooves films to not behave like books.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cinematically, while often enjoyable and always a stunner to look at, \u201cSmall Player\u201d\u2019s story progresses strangely. Phenomenally entertaining, zippy antics at the start quickly careen into a \u201cbetting is bad\u201d morality crisis involving a ghost.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--more inline-module--columnist inline-module--more--thirds\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h2 class=\"inline-module__heading subsection-heading subsection-heading--single-line \">\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"subsection-heading__sub\">Johnny Oleksinski<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>A twist ending that\u2019s meant to be as shocking as \u201cThe Sixth Sense\u201d is a mostly unsurprising head-scratcher.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thus, the movie\u2019s identity \u2014 fun puzzle or spooky \u201cTell-Tale Heart\u201d? \u2014 is ultimately hazy as that of its enigmatic main character Lord Doyle.<\/p>\n<p>Farrell\u2019s Doyle is a charming sleaze bag. He\u2019s a smoking-jacket-clad gambler who lives in glittering Macau, China, a kind of Vegas on steroids. Doyle has accumulated staggering debts and is about to be booted from his luxe hotel for nonpayment. Cycling through a Rolodex of names and accents, there\u2019s an air of Anna Delvey about him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Colin Farrell plays a secretive gambler in \u201cBallad of a Small Player.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Down-on-his-luck Doyle bops around town \u2014 spectacular, as if a sparkler became a city \u2014 borrowing on credit and rolling the dice to win back what he owes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At times it\u2019s hard to believe anyone is falling for his flamboyant con, but money talks. And setting the tale in China, with its different norms and customs, lends some credulity to a man so absurd being readily accepted by everybody around him.<\/p>\n<p>Farrell excels at characters with harmful vices and manages to make them extraordinarily likable with his boyish good nature. Doyle is a bad guy, no doubt about it, but we\u2019re entranced by his quest all the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To a point, anyway.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Tilda Swinton ups the oddness even more than usual as Cynthia Blithe. <span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Not so smitten is Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton), a British private investigator whose client in the UK Doyle cheated out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. He\u2019s on the run. She\u2019s in China chasing him down.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even for her, Swinton\u2019s performance is Tilda Swinton Concentrate. Eat your heart out, Wes Anderson. Berger\u2019s film is grandly scaled, but the actress is nonetheless too cartoony to naturally fit into it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Doyle forms a flirty bond with Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a casino manager who gives him the benefit of the doubt against her best judgement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And he\u2019s visited by his friend Adrian (Alex Jennings), who\u2019s somehow even slipperier than he is.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cSmall Player\u201d loses steam when it shifts in the second half. <span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Really, \u201cSmall Player\u201d is a great movie until it abruptly isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Berger, as ever, is an ambitious director. His \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/11\/04\/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-review-gut-punch-of-a-war-epic\/\">All Quiet on the Western Front<\/a>\u201d and \u201cConclave\u201d were similarly transporting, if not diverting, expressions of immensity.<\/p>\n<p>Visually here that still holds true. Narratively not so much.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lord Doyle\u2019s race to gather cash, and his descent into pseudo-madness in pursuit, just doesn\u2019t match the force of a conniving papal election or the brutal realities of a World War I battlefield.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I liked it well enough. But in this gifted filmmaker\u2019s oeuvre, his latest is a small player, indeed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>movie review BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER Running time: 101 minutes. Rated R (language and suicide). In select theaters. On Netflix Oct. 29. The first half of \u201cBallad of a Small Player,\u201d a mysterious psychodrama starring Colin Farrell, is a sexy, hyperactive, high-roller\u2019s \u201cCatch Me If You Can.\u201d As for the much worse second half, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2093851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[316669,21741,21993,304995,21912,351288],"class_list":["post-2093850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-colin-farrell","tag-entertainment","tag-films","tag-movie-reviews","tag-movies","tag-tilda-swinton"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Colin-Farrells-gambling-ghost-story-is-no-sure-bet.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2093850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2093852,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093850\/revisions\/2093852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2093851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2093850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2093850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2093850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}