Edward Berger’s new film explores the abyss of human desires in a Macau casino

The predominant metaphor in damn luck (Ballad of a Small Player, its original title), the new film Edward Berger after the thriller about the election of the Pope Conclave last year, it’s baccarat: a card game favored by high rollers. It requires no skill, it is pure chance and offers the possibility of winning or losing sums of money that will change your life in an instant. To play baccarat, at least in the world of damn luckyou have to be quite reckless, quite desperate or, most likely, both.

Baccarat is also the most important table game in Macau (the enclave in southern mainland China called the “Las Vegas of Asia”), where the reclusive Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) is squandering his money in his luxurious hotel and casino. But he’s out of money, and if he doesn’t quickly get the exorbitant sum he owes the hotel, he’ll face much bigger problems than just eviction.

Typically, movies about inveterate gamblers include lots of seducers, beautiful women, massive parties, and fast-paced intrigues. (Baccarat is also the favorite game of James Bond). Perhaps inspired by the slow, sentimental song alluded to in the original title, Berger carry damn luck in an almost perversely opposite direction, placing Doyle in a dreamlike and languid world that, in my opinion, moves too heavily.

The script of Rowan Joffebased on the acclaimed novel by Lawrence Osborne from 2014, relies on Doyle’s voice-over to introduce us to the story and clarify some points, but the story takes its time to show us who he is. Eventually, the film takes on a spiritual dimension, but for much of it, everything remains on the surface. So, for a long time, we simply see him go from one place to another, with a panicked expression. Meet Dao Ming (Speak Chen), a casino employee who makes loans to desperate men like him, but who turns out to be just as desperate. Then he realizes that another woman (Tilda Swinton) is following him and he begins to fear that his past is catching up with him. Which, of course, happens.

Two great advantages keep afloat damn luck. One is its aesthetic, which seems inspired by (if not at the level of) a Wong Kar Waiwith its jewel tones and intense greens, oranges and blues. The beauty is somewhat insistent, as if it were intended for the viewer to constantly focus on how magnificent everything is. But of course, everything is magnificent, from the wallpaper to the sky. (Unfortunately, due to release plans, almost everyone only watches the movie on Netflix and misses out on the more immersive big screen experience.)

The other is his own Colin Farrellwho consistently makes the best of even the most mediocre films (including the much worse one he’s in this year, An incredible trip). A lot of this movie is about him pretending to be someone he’s not, acting arrogant while being scared to death and eventually losing his mind a little. Farrell has a interpretive record incredible, and here he makes the most of it. I don’t want to give away details, but for a good part of the movie I thought he was doing something wrong, and then it turns out he was just giving a great performance of a man doing something wrong.

Finally, the central theme of damn luck It emerges like steam rising from the surface of the sea at dawn: the story of a man with insatiable desires. It explores both the experience of suddenly obtaining what one longs for and the experience of being freed from that desire. From a perspective with Buddhist overtones, the film suggests that desire is inherent to human beings, and that voluntarily immersing ourselves in a life of gray and gloomy duties, with no escape from pleasure, is equivalent to give up living. But, on the other hand, being dominated by our desires is hell in itself, not so much burning in a bottomless abyss, but being the abyss itself. We all decide what role to play.

By analyzing that theme in reverse throughout the film, it becomes more interesting. However, it’s also a bit frustrating, since everything from baccarat onwards could have been perfected so that we would believe that Doyle is a man of insatiable desire and not, as it seems, simply someone for whom life has played a trick on him from the beginning. damn luck It contains a great story, but it is weighed down by its artifices. Maybe he got carried away by ambition.

Fuente: The New York Times