GOOD SPORTS DRAMA, BETTER CHARACTER STUDY

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- SREEJITH MULLAPPILLY

HEY say, “Nice guys finish last.” Mark Kerr may be a great mixed martial artist in the ring, but is he really a nice person outside of it? perhaps no, but the best thing about director Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine is that it never gives you any easy answers.

The film is uncompromising in its approach towards unravelling the layers behind this “250-pound monster.” In the opening monologue of Safdie’s film, we see Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) beating his opponents to a pulp, as if he is in a fit of rage and is out there to take out all his frustrations. In the background, we hear the fighter say that he gets a high from doing what he does. Later, Kerr tells his wife, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt), that he gains a sense of “orgasm” from win ning a battle and listening to thou sands of people chanting his name.