Movie Review
Dwayne Johnson aims for Oscar glory in The Smashing Machine
Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine.
For almost 25 years, Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) has tried to make himself into a movie star, with mixed results. While his leading man parts did okay, his biggest successes have been as part of franchises like Fast & Furious, Jumanji, and Moana, none of which were entirely on his broad shoulders. Having possibly exhausted his attempts at appealing to broad audiences, he’s finally decided to test out his dramatic acting abilities in The Smashing Machine.
Johnson plays Mark Kerr, a mixed martial arts champion who was at the forefront of the Ultimate Fighting Championship when it first started to get popular in the late 1990s. The film follows Kerr as he competes in the UFC and also the Pride Fighting Championship, a series of competitions in Japan. Kerr is joined at almost every step by his girlfriend, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt), with whom he has a somewhat volatile relationship.
Kerr is helped along the way by fellow fighter Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader) and coach Bas Rutten (playing himself). His desire to stay on top and stay ahead of the pain that results from the notoriously brutal sport leads him down the path of steroids and opioids, a combination that affects his mind along with his body.
Written and directed by Benny Safdie, the film is bafflingly boring considering the sport it’s depicting. While it’s clear Safdie has a big appreciation for mixed martial arts, that love doesn’t come through in the fight scenes, which are often confusing and static. He also does a poor job of getting across why the film is focused on Kerr, whose dominance - he started off his career with 11 straight wins - is not really on display. In fact, he often comes across as shockingly soft for such a big man.
Johnson layers on makeup to make himself slightly unrecognizable, although it’s a little odd to go to that effort and still look nothing like the actual Kerr. He’s significantly bulked up, even more than he has been for the WWE or action roles, which gives him a hulking physicality that sells at least that part of the character. But it also turns him into a lumbering oaf, a trait that takes away from Kerr’s supposed athleticism.
Safdie and his team make other odd choices that prevent the film from being successful. Staples is the classic wet blanket girlfriend in a sports movie, a character who only seems to exist to drag the male star down. The depiction of Kerr and Staples’ relationship is overwrought to the point of exhaustion. The score by Nala Sinephro is also overbearing, used to match the action exactly in some scenes and cranked up in others in a way that makes the music the focus instead of being complementary to the story.
Johnson, whose charms have been evident in most of his mainstream roles, can never seem to get a handle on how to play Kerr. He makes Kerr appear both intimidating and weak at the same time, never fully inhabiting the fighter’s persona. Blunt is done no favors by her stereotypical role, and unfortunately she is unable to elevate it. Bader, an MMA fighter making his acting debut, does so well in his supporting part that you could make the argument he should have played Kerr instead.
The Smashing Machine is being hyped as an Oscar vehicle for Johnson, but neither he nor the way Safdie tells the story makes the case that his performance should be considered one of the best of the year. Mark Kerr might have been an impressive fighter in his heyday, but the film about his life does little to get that idea across to anyone who didn’t personally witness him in action.
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The Smashing Machine opens in theaters on October 3.
