Every year film critics find a performance that is so out of the box and is one that we never expect from an actor who has been typecast. It’s like being surprised that Robin Williams could actually do drama and not just comedy. Last year’s surprise performance was from Pamela Anderson in The Last Showgirl who I still feel got robbed by not being nominated for best actress. This year, it’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Who plays legendary UFC fighter Mark Kerr, one of the pioneers of the sport who helped make it popular. We will definitely be talking about Dwayne Johnson during award season because this is the best performance of his career. Dwayne Johnson is great at comedy, obviously he can do action, but a dramatic performance mixed in with action, there’s a subtlety to that kind of performance we’ve never seen from him. Dwayne Johnson nailed it. His performance is electrifying, and he embodied the spirit of Mark Kerr way beyond just a physicality he had to have for the role. The performance is not over the top, there’s not any grand speeches like Gary Oldman who won an Oscar for playing Winston Churchill. It’s such an emotional performance especially having known the story of Mark Kerr that we as the audience can’t help but feel sympathy and connected to this character. And while I praise Dwayne Johnson’s performance, the other fantastic performance comes from Emily Blunt who plays his girlfriend in the movie and is not only his rock in a lot of ways, but part of his downfall.
The story centers on Mark Kerr when starting as a MMA fighter in Brazil. A former champion wrestler, he gets into UFC as a wrestler, a different fighting style and really defines the ground and pound aspects of MMA. But this movie is more than just a biopic of his wins or losses, The story really centers on the toll fighting took on his body and his substance abuse. Mark Kerr got addicted to opiates and begins a downward spiral that affected his personal life with his then girlfriend Donna whom he would later marry and have a son with. She’s kind of tragic in her own way, playing a girlfriend that latches on to a fighter and his popularity, but also a character that doesn’t know how to deal with his sobriety. It’s a bit of a spoiler, but if you read about Mark Kerr then you realize that he did get sober and became a whole new fighter without the use of opiates. But this story is really about the rise and fall of one of the elder statesmen of UFC and how he learns to continue fighting without the painkillers while still maintaining his legendary status as the “Smashing Machine” from which the film takes its name. The fights are epic, the choreography is fantastic and while I don’t think it’s the best UFC movie, Warrior with Joel Egerton and Tom Hardy will always be my personal favorite, but the filmmakers do a great job in the Smashing Machine to show how the UFC became more and more popular especially in Japan. But it is the raw and emotional performances of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt that truly make this movie worth watching. Their last scene together in the movie is got wrenching. They showed that they could have great chemistry together in the Disney movie The Jungle Cruise, but this film truly exemplifies it. They’re an unlikely pair to share the screen in such an emotional film, but it works.
However, maybe the one who truly knocks it out of the park is writer and director Benny Safdie who is no stranger to writing tragic in sympathetic characters. In fact, one of my favorite films and I believe it is the best film of Robert Pattinson is Good Time. He also wrote and directed one of Adam Sandler’s best movies, Uncut Gems. The fighting in this movie really takes a back seat to the emotional wreckage of the two main characters. As gritty as the fighting scenes are, the best scenes are with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt having to deal with their lives outside of the ring. It’s almost as if you’re shooting the film as a documentary but blends in different genres of music that match the emotional levels of the film. From classic jazz suites to ’90s pop music, the music plays as a secondary character that takes you on an emotional ride with the characters. Benny is a brilliant actor in his own right, but he really knows how to dive deep into the emotional tragic circumstances of the characters he’s writing about, and it oozes big time on the screen.
At first, I thought the music was a little bit off for film like this, but then it slowly draws you in as you become more and more connected to the characters. Overall, this is one of the best films of the year. Sure, that UFC action is not as enthralling compared to a movie like Warrior, but the emotional charge that drives this film is great. To me a good comparison is Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. But one thing is for sure, Dwayne Johnson leaves no doubt that he can give a great dramatic performance beyond just being a comedic action star. He’s good at those things, having a subtle and sensitive performance of a tragic character, I didn’t think it was possible… The Rock proves me wrong. Maybe he won’t win best actor this year, but he deserves to be recognized for this performance at least with a nomination. And his performance of Mark Kerr is spot on right down to the tone and rhythm of his voice. Dwayne Johnson showed great dramatic range in the HBO series, Ballers, but this is his best performance today and he makes us care about this movie more than we probably should. The movie is good and should be seen on the big screen.
