★★★ (3 out of 4)
I’ve always suspected there was a genuine actor in Dwayne Johnson ready to emerge from under the exhibitionist surface of his wrestler’s body and indestructible movie-star appeal. Friends I’ve told this to usually shake their heads and say, “That’ll be the day.”
Well that day is here. The vehicle for Johnson’s transfixing transformation is called “The Smashing Machine,” now in theaters to put Johnson’s dramatic talents to the test. He passes with flying colors, even sparking Oscar talk among critics who believe this is the role, based on a real person, that Johnson was born to play.
Sort of. That real person, Mark Kerr, is a former college wrestler who made his name as a pioneer in mixed martial arts (MMA), a legit combat sport, as opposed to wrestling which is more like a game of let’s pretend. Like acting. Under his ring name, The Rock, Johnson pretended so well that he won a WWE championship based on faking it. And Johnson fakes it to the limit in “The Smashing Machine,” while finding the ferocity and feeling that defines Kerr as a human being.
So, yeah, “The Smashing Machine” is a biopic, but not a conventional one. Not in the hands of Benny Safdie, going solo for the first time as a director, after working with his brother Josh Safdie on the twin peaks of “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time.” Benny even took the coveted best director prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Still, the awards talk is focusing rightly on Johnson. Safdie presents him to us right away in the ring, smashing his opponent’s face into hamburger, his rage scarily visible. “When you win,” says Mark, “nothing else in the world matters.” That no-holds-barred attitude may account for Mark’s epic head-butts and knees to the head of a grounded opponent.
Oscar-winning prosthetic makeup artist Kazu Hiro went to work on a complete facial transformation for Johnson, changing the shape of his head, nose, eyebrows and creating a wig design that would strengthen the Kerr likeness.
But prosthetics can’t do the acting. That’s Johnson’s job and he wins the decision. He starts with a soft voice that shows the gentleness beneath the hulking giant. Set during the years from 1997 to 2000, the film takes us into Mark’s home in Phoenix, Arizona with his girlfriend and later wife, Dawn Staples, played with quicksilver wit and turbulent spirit by the great Emily Blunt. Their fights could also win a prize if they gave one for domestic battles.
Things get worse when Mark’s use of opioids morphs into an addiction. He turns to his friend, trainer and fellow fighter Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader), but these personal demons are something Mark must tackle alone. “The Smashing Machine” veers toward cliché when Mark’s MMA training with Bas Rutten (as himself) slips into “Rocky”-style rah-rah set to Elvis’s powerhouse take on “My Way,” but Safdie quickly shuts down the usual Hollywood tricks.
Mark’s eventual sobriety, often a nod towards a happy ending, only intensifies the conflict between Mark and Dawn, now in Tokyo for the 2000 Pride Fighting Championship with 15 other fighters competing for the $200,000 prize. Doesn’t sound like much? It wasn’t, not back in the day. But the glory remains a constant goal.
In the later scenes, Mark has shaved his head, looking more like The Rock of legend. But Johnson refuses to turn Mark into another version of himself. Staying true to character and to his own intuitive instincts as an actor, Johnson lets the film play out as written.
Audiences may be disappointed when “The Smashing Machine” refuses to hit familiar beats for a predictable payoff. Some might consider the film’s occasional drift into doom and gloom box-office suicide. And yet Johnson and Safdie are taking an honest route to an honorable end. They deserve points just for that.
Sports and gambling are obsessing both Safdie brothers this year. In December, Josh will star Timothy Chalamet as a 1950s table tennis phenom in “Marty Supreme,” quite the contrast to Benny’s MMA collaboration with Johnson in “The Smashing Machine.”
Will the brothers be competing for an Oscar? I don’t think it would throw them. Sports as a metaphor for a kinetic drive to win is surely a universal theme. For Johnson, “The Smashing Machine” is a gamble that has given him an appetite for more challenging roles. “This is the first time in my career that I’ve not thought about box office once,” he said. I wouldn’t bet against him, critically or commercially. Let the games begin.