Everyone knows who Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is, but most don’t view him as someone who has top notch acting skills. He is mostly known for simplistic, family friendly, and repetitive roles that are easy to watch, but aren’t very moving or adult. Examples of this are Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and The Game Plan (2007). Johnson attempts to break this mold and take on a very emotional and gritty role as Mark Kerr in the true story, The Smashing Machine. It isn’t totally perfect, but it shows that The Rock can take on a serious role and isn’t just an actor for kids.
Fans may point out that there already has been a documentary starring the actual Kerr himself, but this film attempts to go deeper, exploring not just the fights, but also the impact they had on his life and some of the damage they caused.
The Smashing Machine follows Mark Kerr, a pioneer of mixed martial arts who struggles with addiction and relationship problems.
The film begins around 1997, when Kerr is rising fast in the MMA scene. His victories and reputation in both Brazil and Japan are established early, which emphasizes just how little Kerr is adjusted to losing.
Kerr’s winning streak is made out to be impressive, but it comes to an abrupt halt with a big loss to Ukrainian fighter Igor Vovchanchyn (Oleksandr Usyk). Furthermore, the officials ruled that neither Kerr or Vovchanchyn won the fight due to a foul made by Vovchanchyn, but the fight still shakes Kerr deeply. The loss triggers doubts, depression, and pressure.
After Kerr’s loss, he begins to spiral out of control. He becomes addicted to painkillers and is constantly clashing with his longtime girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt). I liked this part of the film as it went the opposite direction of most sports films and showed Kerr’s flaws and vulnerabilities as a person instead of making him out to be a larger than life persona, which contrasted the movie’s opening sequence well.
Kerr eventually overdoses on said painkillers and ends up in the hospital, where he has a touching moment with fellow MMA fighter and best friend, Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader). This scene was the beginning of his redemption and the film shifted to him trying to get clean off the drugs and redeem himself as a fighter.
My favorite aspect of this movie was the cinematography. The camera is very wobbly throughout the film and there is a grainy filter. This makes it feel very immersive and makes it look as if you are watching real footage of Kerr fighting and going about his life. There are also very nice shots, with them utilizing mirror reflections to film and also long strenuous stretches with one specific moving shot. These things showed a ton of emotion and also gave the film a really unique, interesting feel.
One thing I didn’t appreciate about the biopic was Johnson’s acting at some points. Johnson has a fighting background, and it is difficult to find an actor who is muscular enough to fill the role of Mark Kerr, so it made a lot of sense for him to get the role. Through much of the movie, he did a very good job, but there are certain moments where that wasn’t the case. Particularly in scenes where Kerr was crying, it felt very fake and didn’t seem like a real response someone would have to the things he was going through. It took me out of the movie and made me feel much less immersed whenever this would happen.
On the topic of acting, Emily Blunt did an amazing job as Dawn. Her blowups and pent up frustrations felt very genuine and there were even scenes where her character managed to make me question whether or not I should even be rooting for Kerr. Dawn’s interactions with Kerr were a strong suit of the movie. Johnson and Blunt seemed to have legitimate chemistry and they successfully made me understand why they continued to go back to each other despite how much they hurt each other throughout the movie.
Another great aspect of the film was the soundtrack by composer Nala Sinephro. The score perfectly matches the film’s raw emotional tone and physical intensity. In fighting scenes, the music is mostly made up of pulsing, percussive, industrial beats. This contrasts the quiet and ambient pieces that highlight what Kerr is feeling depending on the scene. An interesting part of the soundtrack was that every time Kerr was struck during a fight, a dramatic piano chord would play. This detail made it feel like Kerr’s fights had magnitude and actually mattered.
Going into the final act, I would’ve said this movie was awesome. However, the main problem I have with it was the ending, and I believe that is what kept the film from being truly great. Firstly, the second to last scene where Kerr was in the showers was very confusing. I couldn’t really tell what emotion the movie was trying to convey. I couldn’t even really tell what Kerr was even doing; it was very weird. Also, the closing scene where they jump to the present day and Johnson gets replaced by the actual Kerr was very strange. They tried to demonstrate how Kerr was totally healed and adjusted to everyday living, but they took it too far and just made him nonsensically whimsical, laughing at little things and being overly jolly. I didn’t like this because it was very different from the serious and realistic tone the entire rest of the movie had.
The Smashing Machine was a really cool movie. It felt really genuine and like a lot of attention to detail went into making it. Despite a few unfavorable flaws, I would still recommend seeing this movie.