Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt star in a slice-of-life period drama.
Late in The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt face off in a lengthy, magnificent sequence, set to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungleland,” that soars above the often mundane drama that precedes and follows it.
It’s not the first time that their characters, Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples, have argued fiercely, their innuendos and assumptions lacing into each other with wild abandon, screaming and breaking whatever object happens to be handy, in a manner reminiscent of a Jackie Chan action movie.
The difference is that Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples are drawn from real life, specifically the three-year period between 1997 and 2000 in which Mark rose to a measure of fame by pummeling his opponents with notable brutality in the early days of the American mixed martial arts company Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). While his fighting style was notably violent, he himself appears to be a peaceful, mild fellow himself, happily chatting with fans and cheerfully explaining the concept behind UFC to a woman in a doctor’s waiting room, then giving an autograph to a quiet young lad.
Soon, however, Mark Kerr falls under the sway of illegal medications to help further his career, to the consternation of girlfriend Dawn Staples. Her character is more difficult to read because, mostly, she is presented through the eyes of Mark Kerr, whose judgment becomes increasingly cloudy under the influence of the various drugs he is injecting into himself.
His own character is never sketched out completely for us, either. There’s enough evidence to suggest that he was a mild man before he enjoyed triumphant success in the UFC, but filmmaker Benny Safdie doesn’t make it easy for the audience to connect the dots on anyone’s character to any great depth.
The Smashing Machine represents the maiden voyage for Benny Safdie as a solo artist after a number of collaborations with his brother Josh Safdie, whose own sports-themed drama (Marty Supreme) arrives later this week. As writer, producer, director, and editor, it’s safe to say that Benny Safdie has no interest in a traditional bio-pic structure; he tears it apart, limb by limb, like the doors that Dwayne Johnson’s Mark Kerr destroys on more than one occasion, so that he can focus on the challenges that Kerr faced and how he handled them.
“Not well,” might be one concise summary, which wouldn’t be fair to the man or the movie. The pace rarely speeds up, in stark contrast to the Safdie brothers’ Good Time or Uncut Gems, but The Smashing Machine is not terribly interested in what its title describes, unless it’s meant to convey the sometimes crushing forces that threaten to stamp the life out of Mark Kerr.
Dwayne Johnson gives a fine performance, as does, less surprisingly, Emily Blunt. Ryan Bader, however, is the biggest surprise, imbuing Kerr’s best friend, Mark Coleman, with charming warmth and a winning personality.
The film is now playing in select area theaters. For more information about the film, visit the official site.
Dallas Film Now. 