Dwayne Johnson breaks from his brand and digs deep for some real acting in Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine.
“I’m not a business man/I’m a business, man.”
That Jay-Z quote fits pretty well with Dwayne Johnson, who is now stuck between a Rock and hard place. The actor/producer/salesman/board member feels like he’s putting his priorities in reverse order. He’s one of the most famous people on the planet and it seems he’s more concerned about being financially successful than artistically successful. He’s perhaps the biggest example of what happens when movie stars become brands. Like any good brand, he knows when to pivot. But since Johnson is in the world of movies, he can’t just drop a new energy drink or change a studio’s “hierarchy of power.” He needs to get in front of a camera and remind people why they come to see him in the first place: because he can act.
The Smashing Machine puts Johnson’s meaty hands in the gloves of Mark Kerr, one of the earliest and most influential athletes in the world of mixed martial arts. It’s 1997, and Mark is a bright-eyed wrestler who finds pride and craft in the art of grounding and pounding. Despite looking like the Hulk, Mark is well-spoken and refreshingly kind to everyone in his life. Sometimes that’s shady businessmen who know they can underpay him for this new and mostly unregulated sport. Other times it’s his girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt), who cares for Mark at home but can’t quite wrap her head around why fighting is such a big deal. That, along with daily pains and opiate abuse, puts heavy doubt on Mark’s back that he desperately tries to shake while reaching for glory.
The people’s actor.
Photo Credit: A24
The main event of The Smashing Machine is Johnson’s performance and thankfully, it delivers. This is far and away the best performance Johnson has ever given on the big screen. Even if he doesn’t look exactly like Kerr, Johnson nails his nasally tone of voice and erudite talks about what MMA fighting means to him. His chipper inflection and detailed description of every scenario is so unique, it’s more fitting for an M. Night Shyamalan thriller than any movie about wrestling. It’s fascinating to see a 250+ pound guy say he’s worried about his “tummy” on an amusement park ride. You can tell how much Johnson understands the pain Kerr felt every day from fighting and seeing him constantly restrain his frustration behind a sigh or a smile makes him fascinating to watch.
It’s also a perfect story for Johnson to live in. Despite his money-making successes (Moana 2 grossed $1 billion just this year), the public has started to get tired of Johnson’s never-ending smirk. The failure of Black Adam and his turbulent takeover of WWE were two major dents in Johnson’s armor, something that Mark probably felt every time he lost a fight. Perhaps that’s why Johnson connects so well with the arc of The Smashing Machine; it’s the story of a big strong man learning how to take a loss. Mark has a smile on his face at the end of the movie, but one of acceptance rather than victory. He’s not going to win everything, but at least he’s going to be ok.
Just bring it.
Photo Credit: A24
Despite Johnson’s exceptional performance, The Smashing Machine is not flawless. While the story does well for Mark’s ego, it’s missing some pieces about his life. The script from writer/director Benny Safdie doesn’t offer much detail about Mark’s background that would’ve better explained his behavior and how he learned to keep his feelings so bottled up. It also skips around between 1997 to 2000, missing how Mark learned to overcome his opiate addiction in rehab or what made him want to leave his home in New Mexico to train in California. What fills those gaps are scenes of Mark traveling and training, only elevated by Safdie’s solid directing skills and the wonderful, ambient/jazz score from Nala Sinephro. The first hour of The Smashing Machine makes a strong impression, but the remainder of its 123 minutes leaves a lot to be desired.
A key element to that is the relationship between Mark and Dawn. This is no fault of Blunt, who gives a lot more color to the trophy wife-etchings of Dawn’s character. She even has a solid dynamic with Johnson, with his larger than life persona being grounded by her smaller presence. The problem is that Safdie doesn’t show why Mark and Dawn even like each other. There’s no scene showing how they met, what things they have in common, or why they keep coming back to each other despite multiple moments of toxic behavior. These two are not good for each other, but the movie keeps throwing them back into each other’s orbit. It’s supposed to be the heart of the film, but it just ends up leaving you confused and cold.
The bottom line.
Even if The Smashing Machine is almost too perfect of a vehicle for a buff action star like Johnson (and it is), at least it’s also a good movie on its own. Safdie has enough material to make an engaging character study that’s surprisingly restrained and not too cheesy. And yes, Johnson proves that he actually has the acting chops to create a performance that’s detailed and frequently tragic. Sure this could all be forgotten when the live-action Moana remake comes out, and Johnson will probably have new products to sell with Ryan Reynolds or Kevin Hart or the Hawk Tuah girl. But hey, at least we know that Johnson can care about acting every now and then.
The Smashing Machine is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of A24. Read more articles by Jon Winkler here.
REVIEW RATING
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The Smashing Machine - 7/10
7/10
