The Smashing Machine: Dwayne Johnson's Next Move on the Matt is Actual Acting
By Jim Slotek
Rating: B-
Before he self-destructed on live TV, there was a general understanding that Will Smith was the kind of actor who’d be rewarded come award season for any performance that required actual acting.
He’d made a lot of money for a lot of people, was well liked, worked hard on set and was relatively scandal-free. Did I mention he’d made people a lot of money?
Dwayne Johnson is as clean reputation-wise as it comes. His commercial missteps have been few, and his movies have grossed an estimated $12 billion worldwide.
Plus, he has an infectious smile. You would too.
But, in The Smashing Machine, the otherwise underwhelming biopic of early mixed martial arts star Mark Kerr, the pro wrestler formerly known as The Rock does something I’ve never seen him do in a film before.
He cries. Not in support of a comic scene or unconvincingly the way one might in an action movie when a city has been destroyed, but in actual, close-up despair.
In a testosterone-filled film-history way, it’s the equivalent of when Ninotchka was marketed with the line, “Garbo Laughs!”
The Smashing Machine is not being marketed as, “The Rock Cries!” But somewhere, boxes are being checked. He acts under prosthetics (check), and even bulks up his body for the role (check).
All of this is to say, if anything comes from The Smashing Machine this award season, it’ll be Dwayne Johnson thanking the world on red carpets for the chance to give Mark Kerr his due.
For his part, writer-director Benny Safdie underperforms in The Smashing Machine, seemingly hemmed in by the genre and by actual events (unlike his Uncut Gems, which deserved Oscar attention and raised Adam Sandler’s acting cred). Kerr, a wrestler-turned-MMA fighter, was an unstoppable force at a time when the nascent UFC was treated by the powers-that-be like a disease. It was banned in many jurisdictions, and paid little in the ones where it wasn’t (including Japan, where Kerr was a big deal).
Interestingly, other than the low pay and a drug habit, Kerr is very Rock-like, a sweet, shy guy out of the ring, who goes out of his way to ensure that the opponent he’s just knocked out is okay. The prosthetics and slight voice change aside, he is very much in Johnson’s wheelhouse.
Still, his story is a fairly straight narrative line. It’s the story of man who can’t imagine losing. Kerr was unbeatable. Then he discovered opiates, and wasn’t unbeatable anymore. His redemption is hindered by his brassy girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt, using her British acting super-powers to sound like a typical gum-chewing American), who is attention starved and needy. Her main contribution to the movie seems to be angrily breaking things.
Nonetheless, Kerr redeems himself. End of story.
There is little attempt to dig a little deeper into any of the characters. We don’t know much about them, and the only serious relationship Kerr has seems not to be with Dawn, but with his buddy, sparring partner and fighter in his own right, Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader). It’s the only relationship that rings authentic in the entire film.
The fight scenes are initially impressive and artfully filmed, but eventually repetitive. As a selling device for UFC, The Smashing Machine falls a little short.
Still, even if it seems like we’ve seen this movie before, Johnson does sell his character, no gimmicks, raised eyebrows or phony theatrics. He is believable, even if we never really discover who he is.
The Smashing Machine. Written and directed by Benny Safdie. Stars Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Ryan Bader. In theatres Friday, Oct. 3.