‘The Dink’ Review: Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen in Pickleball Comedy

The presence of Ben Stiller as both lead producer and supporting player furthers the impression that The Dink wants to do for pickleball what Dodgeball did for that sport. Jake Johnson stars in the watchable but entirely vanilla Apple TV sports comedy, which spins a tale of underdog triumph around a once-promising tennis prodigy who rediscovers his mojo on a pickleball court. If that sounds dorky and formulaic, well, it is, despite Johnson’s appealing screen persona and a brief detour into misguided May-December romance. As original streaming movies go, it’s not the worst, nor is it at all memorable.

Josh Greenbaum, who has worked in both narrative features (Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar) and docs (Will & Harper) and directed the upcoming Spaceballs sequel, knows his way around comedy. But there’s only so much vitality he can inject into Sean Clements’ predictable screenplay. Even an ensemble stacked with veterans of standup, sitcoms and sketch comedy fails to bring much edge to the material. When John McEnroe parodying his unfiltered tennis commentator style is the closest you get to funny, maybe something’s missing.

Johnson plays Dustin Boyd, whose laser-focused, hardass father Chuck (Ed Harris) trained him for tennis excellence from early childhood. He won every possible junior championship, his brutal serves earning him the nickname “The Hammer.” (He drives a car with “DE-HAMMR” vanity plates.) But the young Dusty flamed out when he took on fellow up-and-comer Andy Roddick in a title match that was to be his gateway to pro tennis. A broken wrist curtailed his career aspirations. 

Dustin now puts minimal effort into coaching privileged brat 9-year-olds at the tennis club run by his father, while soaking up the adulation of his uber-geek pal PJ (Aaron Chen), the only person still impressed by Dusty’s embellished tales of his glory days. When an errant pickleball from an adjacent court lands at his feet, he insults Candace (Mary Steenburgen), the woman who politely comes to claim it. “This is a tennis club, lady,” he snarls, before unilaterally banning her.

Much of the early humor revolves around the snobbery of tennis purists toward the rampant craze of pickleball, a sport whose paddle racket, perforated plastic ball and popularity with seniors make it an easy target for jokes. Chuck sees its rapid spread as an existential threat to tennis, especially when pickleball advocate Skip (Patton Oswalt) starts angling to take up more of his courts. In some fuzzy plotting, that negotation will hinge on a duel between the star players of both sides. But when Dusty takes a tumble and aggravates his old wrist injury, that puts him out of the running.

In one of many forced cringe-comedy scenes that have the feel of off-night improv and fail to raise a laugh, Dusty consults a sex-obsessed doctor (Ben Stiller), who advises him that pickleball would be his fastest route to wrist rehab, allowing him to get back in the game before the big duel.

Given the time spent on their classically awkward meet-cute, it will surprise no one that Dusty finds himself teamed up with divorcée Candace, facing her regular opponents, mouthy Gail (Cleo King) and saucy Judy (Lynne Marie Stewart, the beatified Miss Yvonne from Pee-wee’s Playhouse, in her final film role 💔).

Inevitably, Dusty will learn that pickleball requires skill as he develops an unexpected (by him, at least) enthusiasm for the sport, along with romantic feelings for Candace, mistaking her friendship for attraction. Mercifully, Candace nips that potential Harold and Maude situation in the bud, leaving Steenburgen with her dignity intact.

That’s about as risky as Clements’ screenplay gets. From there on out, every story beat will be familiar to anyone who’s ever seen a come-from-behind underdog loser redemption movie. Mostly, it dwells on Dusty’s desperate bid for his emotionally cold father’s approval, in which Roddick plays a part, gamely showing himself in an unsportsmanlike light. (Poor Harris deserves better than Chuck’s unpersuasive paternal atonement scene.)

Johnson (best known for the Fox sitcom New Girl and as the voice of the cynical older Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequels) makes an affable lead, managing to retain the viewer’s sympathy even pre-humbling, when he’s being an obnoxious jerk. And the always-welcome Steenburgen brings relaxed warmth to her role. But the movie doesn’t require much of anyone in the ensemble; comedians like Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnell and Fortune Feimster are wasted in throwaway roles.

Like most meat-grinder, non-auteur streaming originals, The Dink — named for an often-decisive drop shot — has the bland sheen of an insurance commercial. There’s also a techno-inflected score by Dara Taylor, along with similarly pulsing needle drops. But it’s no Challengers. In truth, it’s not much of anything beyond background noise while you’re making dinner. The most imaginative thing about it is that it’s not called Pickleball.