Known worldwide for his former pro wrestling career and his charismatic performances in comedies and high-concept blockbusters, Hayward-born Dwayne Johnson impresses in every way as real-life UFC wrestler and mixed martial artist Mark Kerr. He’s so good that he manages to upstage the film he stars in.
Kerr is Johnson’s most challenging role and it plays well off his brawn and background but, best of all, it nudges him outside his comfort zone, giving him a golden opportunity to rummage through the complicated psyche of Kerr, a likeable athlete who battled addiction and whose career helped pave the way for MMA fighters.
Johnson adopts a less-is-more approach and it’s the right choice; his performance elevates an interesting but not overly remarkable sports biopic.
Johnson transforms into Kerr (yes, numerous prosthetics help) and speaks in a calming and sincere voice that belies something primordial festering inside. That rage gets triggered whenever he’s slamming opponents to the mat but also when his needy and big-personality girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt) pushes his buttons time and again at home. She is the unfortunate match to a welling-up rage, and the punched walls and broken doors are the testament to a uneasy relationship.
Both are bonded by this cling-on, dysfunctional attraction that turns volatile and toxic when one is not getting their needs met. The outbursts, along with the rigorous bouts of training, the extreme wrestling matches (edited tightly and tautly) and even a ticking soundtrack offer a front-row seat to the unhealthy personal and physical sacrifices made by the professional UFC star and mixed martial artists in those wild times of the ‘90s.
Yet when it’s over, you leave “The Smashing Machine” feeling a little underfed, wishing that the time frame had been expanded and more attention had directed to what happens after. Yes, there are postscripts at its end but what they say begs for more details. “The Smashing Machine” marks director/screenwriter Benny Safdie’s first solo gig, and he brings the sweating-bullets intensity that he and his filmmaking partner and brother Josh choreographed in agonizingly intense features such as “Uncut Gems” with Adam Sandler and “Good Time” with Robert Pattinson. There are flourishes of that intensity for the first hour, but “Smashing” runs on too long and loses momentum in its third act.
Another stumble is the character of Dawn, who comes across as a she-devil. Blunt’s a great actress but she seems miscast in a role that pins a target of scorn on the character’s back. I wish there was more on her background and erratic behavior.
What clicks are all scenes between Johnson and Ryan Bader, the MMA star-turned-actor who’s more than merely convincing as Kerr’s coach and mentor, Mark Coleman. A loyal friend, Coleman sees his career changing roles with Kerr, and both actors illustrate the love and competition that happens between friends in a sport that demands it.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.
‘THE SMASHING MACHINE’
2½ stars out of 4
Rating: R (language, some drug use)
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader
Director: Bennie Safdie
Running time: 2 hours, 3 minutes