'The Smashing Machine' review: Benny Safdie, Dwayne Johnson offer a comforting, if not groundbreaking, drama

Whenever a filmmaker or journalist adopts a niche subject matter about which they're passionate, there is no guarantee that the film will set the cash registers ringing or the article will fetch thousands of clicks. A day earlier, I told a colleague, a serious cineaste himself, that I'm going to watch The Smashing Machine. He responded, "It was a flop in the U.S., no?" The film landed on Indian screens today, but opened in U.S. theatres a week earlier. Its total reported budget is $50 million, and its gross so far is just a little above $7 million. I know, not exactly encouraging numbers. 

At a time when people are obsessed with box office figures — it's a sad reality, I've seen the data — and judge a film based on its total gross rather than the film's overall quality, I think it needs to be said that a work like The Smashing Machine matters, too. Imagine how boring the world would be if everyone were so number-driven and chose not to write about certain works of art simply because they are discouraged by the improbability of people being drawn to them in large numbers.

It's evident that Benny Safdie saw in Mark Kerr, the retired MMA fighter on whom The Smashing Machine is based, an interesting subject. Perhaps it was Dwayne Johnson's idea, so that he could be in a project that made people — at least those who bothered to show up for this film — take him seriously as an ACTOR. 

Regardless of whatever intentions prompted the creation of this project, Johnson made the right choice. It's a near-unrecognisable makeover where the action hero side of The Rock is barely visible. I would even go so far as to say that Johnson reminded me of some of the early Robert De Niro performances that we witnessed in his collaborations with Martin Scorsese. Of course, I'm not implying that Johnson is as good as De Niro, but The Smashing Machine proves that, like Sylvester Stallone, someone with a bulky, muscular physique, often associated with summer tentpoles, can also deliver the goods in the hands of an able filmmaker.

We have seen numerous examples of sports dramas featuring protagonists tormented by various demons, to the point of their struggles either badly meddling with their personal relationships — ranging from the 1949 boxing stories The Set-Up and The Champion, to The Hustler (1961) to Raging Bull (1980) to The Wrestler (2008). Different actors, different filmmaking sensibilities... all important films. So, how highly does The Smashing Machine, characterised by the faux documentary approach that filmmakers like John Cassavetes mastered, fare in the novelty factor department in comparison to the above films? Very little, I'm afraid. But as I said earlier, what it has to offer still matters. 

The Smashing Machine is certainly not in the league of a Raging Bull, but it shares a few things in common with the other films I mentioned. While it keeps us at a distance due to the niche subject matter and a central character cared about only by hardcore wrestling and MMA aficionados, those of us who have made many sacrifices — including, on occasion, our sanity — will find much to relate to. The film, among other things, is a portrait of professional ambitions and personal lives clashing with incredible ferocity. Some of its most poignant moments feature Johnson and Emily Blunt as partners grappling with a complex emotional landscape. These two happen to be characters in whom we see some of our own shortcomings, and the effect is mildly therapeutic, to say the least. I'll take that any day over a junk food blockbuster with no interesting insights to offer.

 

Film: The Smashing Machine

Director: Benny Safdie

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk

Rating: 4/5

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