I will admit this review is probably going to come with a little bias. I have always had a soft spot for Jake Johnson.
There is something about the way he approaches comedy that makes his characters feel familiar without becoming predictable, so when I saw he was leading Apple TV’s latest sports comedy, “The Dink”, I was more than willing to give it my attention.
The film follows Dusty Boyd, a former tennis prodigy whose promising career ended after a humiliating loss to a teenage Andy Roddick.
Years later, Dusty is coaching children at his father Chuck’s country club and still living with the disappointment of what might have been.
When a wrist injury prevents him from playing tennis, he reluctantly takes up pickleball, the sport his father sees as a threat to the club.
For anyone who has watched pickleball suddenly become a very serious lifestyle choice, the premise has another layer of familiarity.
The sport has exploded in popularity in the United States, much like padel has done elsewhere, with people of all ages taking to courts that seem to have appeared overnight.
“The Dink” has plenty of fun with that rivalry between traditional tennis and the newer sport, but it is really using pickleball to tell a story about something much less athletic.
Dusty spends much of the film trying to prove himself to his father.
Chuck (Ed Harris) is not simply the stern father standing on the sidelines. He is the person whose approval Dusty has spent years chasing, particularly after the tennis defeat that changed the course of his life.
The film understands how complicated that kind of relationship can become when a person has spent so long measuring their worth against one parent's expectations.
There is something universally uncomfortable about working your whole life for the approval of the person you have decided is the best man in the world.
Johnson plays into that insecurity without making Dusty completely miserable to watch. He is funny, but the humour comes from the character rather than simply being placed around him. His timing is one of the reasons the film stays enjoyable even when the story follows a fairly familiar sports-comedy structure.
Mary Steenburgen’s Candace also gives the film a more interesting romantic thread, particularly because the relationship is allowed to exist without making their age difference the entire joke.
Her Candace is not simply there to provide Dusty with a romantic subplot. She is an accomplished pickleball player with her own life and is one of the people who helps him see the sport differently.
The relationship between the two also gives the film one of its more refreshing choices: it does not treat their age difference as something that needs to become the joke.
Yes, the two share unexpected romantic chemistry, but pairing works because their age difference is never treated as the punchline.
The relationship is allowed to develop with the same awkwardness, humour and warmth as any other adult romance, while avoiding the neatly packaged ending that so many Hollywood films rely on.
I appreciated that.
Life does not always reward you with the person you thought you were supposed to end up with simply because you learned an important lesson. Sometimes you learn the lesson and keep moving.
That is really what makes “The Dink” more interesting than its pickleball premise suggests.
The final match is not simply about Dusty proving that he can still be the best athlete in the room. It becomes part of a bigger shift in how he sees himself. He has spent years defining his life through one defeat and one man's approval.
By learning to enjoy something he once dismissed, he begins to understand that success does not necessarily mean returning to the person he was before.
For a comedy about a sport that many people still regard with suspicion, that is a surprisingly thoughtful idea.
There are plenty of laughs along the way, particularly in the clash between tennis purists and the people who have fully committed to pickleball life. There is also something quite funny about the way people look down on sports such as pickleball because they are not considered “cool” enough.
Tennis has history, prestige and its polished image, while pickleball can still be treated like the slightly embarrassing new kid that everyone pretends they are too sophisticated to play.
Aaron Chen adds to the energy as PJ, while appearances from Andy Roddick and John McEnroe give the film some charm for anyone who enjoys seeing sporting names who can laugh at themselves.
That attitude towards the sport actually feeds into Dusty’s story. He spends much of the film trying to prove that he still has something to offer, while also dismissing pickleball because it does not fit the idea of the athlete he once thought he would be.
The sport becomes another version of the approval he has been chasing from his father.
It is a feeling that has very little to do with tennis or pickleball. How many of us have spent years trying to prove something to a parent, a partner, our friends or even ourselves?
There is always another milestone to reach, another version of success we are supposed to have achieved by 30, 40 or 50. Somewhere along the way, it becomes easy to care more about how a life looks than whether you actually enjoy living it.
Dusty only starts moving forward when he stops treating one defeat as a verdict on his life and his father’s approval as the prize at the end of it.
He still wants his father to be proud of him, but that approval no longer gets to decide whether he has succeeded.
That is what makes the ending more satisfying than another predictable sports victory. Growing older does not have to mean proving that you can still be the best person in the room. Sometimes it means being comfortable enough to enjoy the thing everyone else thinks is uncool.
★★★★ (4/5): A funny, feel-good sports comedy with more on its mind than winning a pickleball match. Jake Johnson brings the laughs, while the film quietly gets into ageing, parental approval and learning to stop measuring your life against someone else’s idea of success.
bernelee.vollmer@nationalmg.co.za