‘The Smashing Machine’ is an extraordinary film – raw, intimate, and far removed from the larger-than-life action roles we usually associate with Dwayne Johnson. In a near-incognito performance, Johnson plays Mark Kerr, one of the pioneers of mixed martial arts at the tail end of the 1990s. It’s an inspired piece of casting: a superstar embodying a man whose real-life fame came with equal parts pain, pride, and self-destruction.

As in the best ring-based dramas, the real battles unfold outside the cage. Kerr’s public image is charming and composed, but his private life is chaotic. His relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn (played with striking vulnerability by Emily Blunt), veers between devotion and volatility. Meanwhile, his dependence on painkillers threatens to undo both his body and his spirit. We see him as often in hospital wards as in the ring – a fighter constantly nursing wounds, both visible and hidden.

Much of the film takes place in Japan, where Kerr begins as an undefeated champion. But his life spirals into addiction, self-doubt, and emotional collapse. This isn’t a traditional redemption arc. There are moments of respite, such as a quiet, tender scene at a fairground where Kerr, too fragile for the rollercoaster, rides a merry-go-round among laughing children, but the film resists the Hollywood impulse to glorify recovery.

Handheld camerawork and documentary footage lend the film a bruising realism, reinforced by real-life clips of the actual Mark Kerr that close the story. Johnson’s performance is remarkable for its restraint. We’re never fully inside Kerr’s head – instead, we observe him, as the camera does, at a distance, watching him falter, rage, and occasionally find grace.

A supporting thread involving his friend and rival Mark Coleman adds further depth, showing how camaraderie and competition intertwine in a sport that feeds on both pain and loyalty. In one memorable moment, an elderly woman in a waiting room asks whether the two men truly hate each other. Kerr smiles and replies, “Not at all.” It’s a reminder that beneath the aggression lies recognition – two men bound by the same hunger and the same cost.

One of the film’s most harrowing sequences sees Dawn unravel emotionally, mirroring Kerr’s own fragility. ‘The Smashing Machine’ thrives on these dualities – between strength and vulnerability, fame and anonymity, love and destruction.

For an actor best known for invincibility – from ‘Jumanji’ to ‘Fast & Furious’ — Dwayne Johnson’s portrayal of Mark Kerr is astonishingly human. It’s a film about the myth of toughness, the pain beneath the persona, and the quiet truth that even the strongest can shatter.