In the case of Dwayne Johnson, I often know precisely what I’m getting. In most of his films, he’s basically taking part in some model of himself, it’s at all times the identical character. It really works for him, however I’ve been eager to see him do one thing totally different.
I needed to see Johnson actually stretch himself, to step outdoors his consolation zone and present us one thing deeper. With The Smashing Machine, we lastly obtained to see Johnson actually, truley act, and I used to be floored by what he delivered.
This movie isn’t a blockbuster spectacle or a quippy action-adventure. It’s a heavy, uncompromising character examine constructed completely round Johnson’s portrayal of UFC legend Mark Kerr, and he disappears into the position.
For the primary time in years, I wasn’t watching “The Rock” on display screen; I used to be watching a person damaged by dependancy, haunted by strain, and clinging to the delicate hope of redemption. It’s simply probably the most weak and layered efficiency Johnson has ever given, and I believed it was award worthy.
The story follows Kerr via the peak of his preventing profession, the place behind each victory looms a darker reality: a crippling dependence on prescription painkillers.
The bodily toll of the game bleeds into his private life, notably his unstable relationship with longtime girlfriend Daybreak Staples, performed with uncooked conviction by Emily Blunt. The dynamic between Johnson and Blunt is electrical in all of the worst methods as you’re watching two individuals who love one another however can’t appear to cease tearing one another aside.
Their arguments are relentless, painful, and at occasions nearly insufferable to look at. And but, that’s precisely what makes the film work.
Benny Safdie directs with an unflinching honesty. He doesn’t glamorize Kerr’s victories or soften the blows of his losses, contained in the ring or out of it. As an alternative, Safdie provides us a gritty, textured portrait of a person at battle with himself.
There’s a weight to each scene, and a pressure that pulls on you over the course of the movie. And whereas the film is undeniably robust to sit down via at occasions because it’s darkish, miserable, suffocating, it’s additionally hauntingly actual.
There are flashes of sunshine throughout the darkness. The movie explores Kerr’s bond with fellow fighter Mark Coleman, and people moments of camaraderie give us a glimpse of what the story may have leaned into much more.
However the place The Smashing Machine finally shines is in its uncooked depiction of Kerr’s journeyand the resilience he finds within the wreckage of his life. Johnson dials down his trademark bravado and faucets into one thing way more fragile with fairly worry, desperation, and a necessity for connection.
By the point the movie reaches its crushing climax, each Johnson and Blunt unleash a number of the greatest work of their careers. It’s messy and devastating however by no means overplayed.
And as bleak because it all feels, there’s nonetheless a spark of hope, one which retains the film from collapsing beneath its personal weight. That little spark makes the journey price it.
The Smashing Machine isn’t a feel-good film. It’s punishing, emotionally draining, and heavy in ways in which would possibly flip off anybody anticipating a extra conventional sports activities drama.
However if you wish to see Johnson really act, actually act, that is the movie to look at. Susceptible, gripping, and unflinching, it’s probably the most shocking efficiency of his profession, and I hope it’s the primary of many roles the place he pushes himself like this.
If The Smashing Machine is the beginning of a brand new chapter for Johnson, then signal me up.
