★★½ (2½ out of 4)
I don’t play pickle ball. But my wife does. A lot. That means I know that a “dink” is a soft, controlled shot that arcs over the net to land in the opponent's "kitchen" (non-volley zone). The name is essentially onomatopoeic; players use a gentle, tapping motion that creates a quiet "dink" sound upon contact, rather than the loud, powerful pop of a smash. It is the primary way players slow down the pace of the game.
Which brings me to “The Dink,” the aggressively non-aggressive motion picture now streaming on Apple TV+. To tennis players, especially the confrontational ones, dink is a dorky form of tennis. A wussy game. That’s an unfair but fitting description of “The Dink” as a movie. It goes down easy and nobody gets hurt. Few concuss playing pickleball.
About 20 years ago, Ben Stiller—who co-produced and cameos in “The Dink”—starred in a grossout comedy called “Dodgeball” that took the opposite tact. There’s no doubt that “Dodgeball” would kick pickle ball’s ass. I promise no more similes after this one: “The Dink” is like Adan Sandler in “Happy Gilmore,” when he took the role of a combative hockey star who switched to golf and couldn’t stand the niceness.
There’s nothing hard charging about this comedy placebo. ‘The Dink’ really is a dink. It’s easy, breezy and light on its feet, and on a lazy summer night, a dink can win the game.
“The Dink” stars the reliably charming Jake Johnson as Dusty Boyd, once a child tennis prodigy now sidelined by an injury. Dusty works for his big daddy, Chuck (a full grump Ed Harris), who owns Mountain Crest, a posh tennis club, and considers pickle ball a plague tantamount to the coronavirus. Dusty leans on his bestie PJ (Aaron Chen) to pump up his spirits when dad calls him a loser.
Still, there’s no disguising that club members are hooked on pickle ball and they want more courts. Chuck would rather die. To address the issue, he sets up a duel between one tennis player and one pickleball advocate. The winner gets the courts. The game isn’t rigged, but there’s no way Chuck is letting his accident-prone son Dusty stand up for Team Tennis.
At the behest of a sports doc played by Stiller, the 40-ish Dusty tries pickle ball to keep in shape. His partner is a 70-ish divorced woman called Candace. But since she’s played by the forever lovely Mary Steenburgen, why complain? Dusty sure doesn’t. Is our tame sports comedy turning into a May-December romcom?
Working from a no-fuss script by Sean Clements (“Workaholics”), director Josh Greenbaum, of the sparky “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” seems willing to try anything. He drags in bit parts for Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnett and Patton Oswalt as a pickleball enthusiast named Skip. Tennis champs John McEnroe and Andy Roddick appear as themselves with Dusty accusing Roddick of using Jedi mind tricks to trip him on the courts.
“The Dink” plays like a movie that’s had to call in a lot of favors to sustain one hour and 41 minutes of screen time. Still, you admire the effort expended to please. In case you’re in suspense over whether Dusty will take the pickleball side against his father, you clearly don’t watch many movies. There’s nothing hard charging about this comedy placebo. “The Dink” really is a dink. It’s easy, breezy and light on its feet, and on a lazy summer night, that kind of dink can win the game. And this I guarantee: you won’t leave this movie hating pickle ball.