Directed by Benny Safdie, The Smashing Machine follows the true story of former amateur wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson), who fought his way to the top of the world of wrestling and MMA fighting in the 1990s while battling drug addiction and trying to hold onto his relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt).
For years Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been considered to be one of the biggest action stars in the film industry, having paved the way for other wrestler turned actors to join Hollywood, but in recent years it has become incredibly apparent that his career has not been as meteorically successful as it used to be as many people were starting to get tired of his monotonous performances and blockbusters. Dwayne Johnson clearly needed to step up his game in a huge way, which leads to this film, where he seems to be bringing something very different and transformative to the table for the first time in his career.
This bold move certainly got everyone’s attention, and I definitely found myself interested to see what Dwayne Johnson had in store for his first A24 production under the direction of Benny Safdie in his first solo directing debut without his brother alongside him. After getting the opportunity to watch the film at an early screening, I can honestly say that Dwayne Johnson gives the performance of a lifetime in a film that unfortunately fell short of my expectations. The Smashing Machine succeeds in delivering a career best performance for the Rock but fails to connect with me, with an incomplete story that left me knowing less about Mark Kerr or the world of UFC fighting than I did going in. I really wanted to love this film as a whole as there are things to love about it, but I felt there was so much working against it that I just couldn’t connect with it on the same level others have who watched this film before me.
The main cast of this film is small with only a few cast members being front and center, including Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader and Bas Rutten. But even when they are the main focus in a story that works against them, I felt each of them delivered fantastic performances, with the biggest standout among them being Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr. His performance as Mark is by far the most complex and nuanced of his entire career, full of raw emotion that he puts a lot of effort into. While I do feel the film’s narrative could have done a lot more to explore Mark Kerr’s earlier life, Dwayne Johnson acts his ass off to make us connect with a broken individual with many demons that I felt engaged with it, for the most part.
Emily Blunt also delivers a solid performance as Dawn Staples, bringing in heart and complexity in her performance, but unfortunately I found her to be very underwhelming and underutilized in this film. Given how much Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt had so much brilliant chemistry both on and off screen with their work in 2021’s Jungle Cruise I was expecting big things to come from them in this film and sadly I didn’t get that. While they certainly do amazing in their individual performances I didn’t really care about them as couple, mainly because of how toxic and underdeveloped the relationship between them is.
If the relationship of Mark and Dawn was truly as volatile as this film depicts I would have liked to have known what led it to be like this. There is no real chemistry built up between them, and therefore it’s hard to really care about them when their relationship issues become a focus throughout the film in very dramatic moments that could have worked if we had more earlier insight of their relationship.
I honestly felt way more chemistry between Kerr and Mark Coleman, played really well by Ryan Bader. Mark Coleman is depicted to be Kerr’s best friend, as well as an occasional training buddy, and despite not being shown how they became friends you do feel their history radiating from their interactions together. I felt a lot more investment with their friendship together compared to the relationship of Mark and Dawn. While I can assume that was how it was in real life it seems odd to me that they had far more development and chemistry when you’d think Dawn would have been a far more important figure to Kerr’s life compared to Coleman.
This biggest problem this film has working against it is its incomplete narrative that fails to get me emotionally attached to the story of Mark Kerr as a whole. Most biographical dramas I have seen usually have a first act dedicated to exploring the origins of the figures they are based on, allowing us to see how they came to be successful before diving into their personal struggles later in their lives, so you feel connected with them after getting introduced in depth. But in this film we don’t get a first act like that. Instead we jump right into the peak of Mark’s career in a certain selection of years, followed up with his immediate struggles with drug addiction, physical pain, relationship problems and mental health issues.
Without any proper context or time dedicated to fleshing out Mark Kerr’s life it was honestly hard to care about him and his story in all of its high points and low points. The only thing that kept me truly invested in Mark was Dwayne Johnson’s performance, which hugely carries the film. The story is clearly not just about fighting; it is trying to highlight various themes through the perspective of Mark Kerr, such as the cost of ambition and the price of living under constant pressure in the UFC world, but I feel it only works in some places and not entirely in others, again due to lack of context and development. It was certainly interesting to see how the UFC evolved in such a short period of time with new rules and changes to the sport, but at the same time I felt like I didn’t get to learn as much about the world of UFC in such a short time frame.
While the narrative of the film may have fallen short of expectations I can say that the technical elements of this film were really great especially for how it depicts the ferocity of MMA fighting. Every punch, kick and tackle on display in the fights look and feel like it really really hurts thanks to stellar choreography, cinematography and intense sound editing. Given Benny Safdie’s experience in making films that can assault the senses you definitely feel that coming out in the fight scenes, showing how much physical and mental torment the competitors are going through in these fights.
Outside of the fights this film beautifully captures the aesthetics of the late 90s and early 2000s, making it visually appealing to the eyes. Additionally this film features a solid soundtrack of appropriate songs and a solid score by Nala Sinephro composing for the first time in a theatrical release.
The Smashing Machine promised to give a phenomenal performance from Dwayne Johnson and that is exactly what this film delivers, but I wish the rest of the film was just as phenomenal as his performance. Had this film taken more time to explore Mark Kerr’s life and give more context about his struggles I would have probably ended up really loving this film. This is by no means a terrible film but it’s one that I personally felt I couldn’t really connect to as much as others have. I still recommend for everyone to give it a go, especially to those who have been waiting to see Dwayne Johnson take on a different role. I’m going to give The Smashing Machine a C+ = 79.
You can find more of my writing on instagram, and check out my channel on YouTube!