As the grey hairs populating my nearby gym prove week in and week out, pickleball is rapidly increasing in popularity. My knowledge of the trendy sport is pretty limited, though. So it’s not just the teeball version of tennis, I guess? It makes sense that there would eventually be movies surrounding pickleball, and now we have one with The Dink, which boasts Ben Stiller as a producer and co-star. Based on early promos, it looked like Stiller was attempting another version of his hit, Dodgeball, and to be fair, there are similar elements in this misfit underdog story. But with Jake Johnson as an immature tennis pro trying to find his way, and Mary Steenburgen as a pickelball-loving romantic interest, the film’s formula is that of a coming-of-age story, and it scores more than it hits the net.
Johnson plays Dusty Boyd, a tennis prodigy known as “The Hammer” because, even as a child, he hit the ball harder than anyone. He became a sensation, but saw his dreams of going pro blow up due to an Andy Roddick-related injury. Boyd has been living on his former fame ever since, retelling old stories while working at the tennis club run by his disapproving father, Chuck, played by Ed Harris. Chuck and Dusty agree on one thing: pickleball is a blight (there’s literally a powerpoint of it spreading like the plague, hilarious) that will never infect the country club. So when Chuck enforces the bylaws to prevent it, Dusty is given the chance to defend the club in a tennis match. Instead, he gets hurt and lets his father down once again. Ben Stiller plays Dusty’s doctor, who prescribes him pickleball as a form of low-impact rehab.
Whenever a movie calls for a seasoned, gorgeous woman to play the object of affection in a comedy, it’s inevitably Steenburgen who gets dialed up, and for good reason. She enters The Dink as Candace, a local pickleball player whose meet cute with Dusty happens when he bans her from the club. They meet again at another spot and are forced to team up in a pickleball match, and in the process find they have quite a lot in common. The friendship is sweet and funny, with pickleball being the bond that binds them together. Candace is more experienced in life, but she has her own issues that Dusty can be a friend to help her through, such as a honky tonk encounter with her ex-husband and his young wife, played by Stiller’s actual wife, Christine Taylor.
The Dink doesn’t go to the silly extremes that Dodgeball does, instead centering on Dusty’s need to improve himself and face the demons of his past. That means he’ll inevitably have an embarrassing reunion with Roddick, which will force him to confront why he’s been such a slacker for so long. Dusty and Candace’s friendship also faces a hurdle which throws into question whether they can be more than just partners on the court. With the exception of Dusty’s slavish pal PJ, played by Aaron Chen, all of the characters are treated seriously and not as cartoonish. Dusty feels like he wandered in from a completely different movie and most of his scenes, one of which involves an awkward sexual confession, don’t jibe with the tone at all.
The cast is great from top to bottom, with Johnson as likeable as ever. He’s played a lot of characters like Dusty; men in some form of emotional arrested development, getting through life doing the bare minimum, letting down those closest to them. He always finds a way to make these guys relatable, believable, and charming. He and Steenburgen are great together, and just when we think they don’t have any romantic chemistry (they actually kinda do), it becomes part of the story affecting Dusty and Candace’s friendship. Harris, at his most ornery, never lets his performance edge too far into making Chuck the villain of Dusty’s story. This isn’t that kind of movie where good triumphs over evil. Director Josh Greenbaum, whose credits range from Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar to the documentary Will & Harper to Spaceballs: The New One, keeps The Dink grounded as one man’s journey of self-discovery through the game of pickleball. This one’s a winner, and might even convince you to give the game a try yourself.
The Dink is streaming now on AppleTV.
