Ballad of a Small Player

While it knows its way around a baccarat table, the downbeat gambling saga Ballad of a Small Player ultimately deals moviegoers a losing hand.

Beneath the surface glitz, this muddled fish-out-of-water psychological thriller from director Edward Berger (Conclave) fails to raise the emotional stakes alongside the financial ones.

The story follows Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell), a con man with high-roller aspirations whose exploits have saddled him with debts, and left him exiled to the casinos of Macau, where he’s eluding authorities and creditors alike without much of a future — and running up more bills in the process.

A slick-talking, unscrupulous schemer, Doyle initially refuses to admit he has a wagering problem — which, of course, is often the first sign you do, in fact, have issues. Within his solitary lifestyle, hallucinations and anxiety leave him mentally unstable.

He finds companionship with a casino employee (Fala Chen) who buys his sad-sack excuses. But he isn’t treated as charitably by a private investigator (Tilda Swinton) working for the British government, hired to chase down Doyle on fraud accusations.

“What I see is a criminal through and through — and worse, a man whose childish pride has set in way beyond any redemption,” she explains upon confronting him.

Farrell’s committed portrayal digs beneath his character’s anguished surface with a mix of quirky charm and quiet desperation. Doyle is a pitiful figure experiencing a surreal reckoning, but that’s insufficient to earn a rooting interest.

The film is most noteworthy for its stylish visual flourishes, from its neon-infused color palette and flashy costumes to its meticulously detailed sets and camera choreography in the vein of Wes Anderson. The craftsmanship is solid all around.

However, the screenplay by Rowan Joffe (Before I Go to Sleep) — adapted from a novel by Lawrence Osborne (The Forgiven) — lacks the same vibrancy, emphasizing eccentricities while shortchanging narrative depth and moral complexity.

Amid the appropriately melancholy mood, periphery characters occasionally pop in and out without much consequence, with Swinton among the actors squandered in the process.

Stumbling in trying to provide a more compelling story to surround its intriguing title character, Ballad of a Small Player cashes out early.

Rated R, 101 minutes.