Considering its explosion in popularity over the last decade, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood gave pickleball the sports movie treatment. Thankfully, “The Dink” is an agreeable choice to break the ice. Like the game itself, it’s breezy, light on its feet and content to keep things fun rather than aim for greatness. Director Josh Greenbaum (“Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar”) and writer Sean Clements embrace that easygoing spirit with an earnest charm, delivering a comedy that should resonate with anyone who grew up on underdog sports movies like “Dodgeball” or “Happy Gilmore,” even if its comedic swings occasionally get a little too broad for their own good.
Jake Johnson stars as Dusty Boyd, a former junior tennis phenom once nicknamed “The Hammer” for his blistering serve. His promising career comes crashing down after an embarrassing collapse against real-life tennis star Andy Roddick, who gamely plays himself, leaving Dusty bitter, humbled and unable to move past the failure that defined him. These days he teaches tennis lessons at a country club owned by his father Chuck, played with wonderfully dry restraint by Ed Harris, whose deadpan delivery serves as the perfect counterweight to Johnson’s lovable, self-destructive energy. Dusty bristles whenever someone even mentions pickleball, viewing it as an insult to the sport he devoted his life to mastering.
Chuck, however, recognizes where the future is headed. Seeing pickleball’s booming popularity, particularly among older players, he organizes a tournament between a tennis player and a pickleball champion to determine whether the club should embrace the growing trend. Dusty naturally expects to represent tennis, but years of unresolved resentment continue to cloud his judgment. After clumsily injuring his wrist while trying to prove himself, an eccentric doctor, played by Ben Stiller in an extended cameo, suggests he temporarily take up pickleball while he recovers. What begins as a reluctant compromise gradually forces Dusty to confront both his pride and the possibility that the sport he mocked might actually have something to teach him.
The film finds its emotional center in Dusty’s unlikely friendship with Mary Steenburgen’s Candace, a recent divorcée who discovered pickleball as a way to rebuild her confidence after her marriage ended. Their chemistry is surprisingly sweet, and while the film repeatedly teases a romance despite the considerable age difference, Greenbaum wisely keeps the relationship grounded in genuine companionship. A scene where the two watch “The Graduate” together makes the film’s intentions almost comically obvious, but Steenburgen’s warmth and Johnson’s understated vulnerability help sell the connection anyway. More importantly, Candace becomes the catalyst for Dusty’s transformation from an egotistical burnout into someone whose redemption actually feels earned.
If there’s one place where “The Dink” stumbles, it’s in its climax. The final tournament asks viewers to overlook so many questionable rules and contrived logistics that it briefly abandons the grounded world the film spends most of its runtime establishing. Sports movies don’t have to be realistic, but they do need their big payoff to feel internally consistent, and this finale stretches credibility enough to lessen some of the emotional satisfaction it has carefully built.
Even so, “The Dink” ultimately understands exactly what kind of movie it wants to be. It’s an easygoing crowd-pleaser that never mistakes itself for a prestige sports drama, instead finding humor in the culture clash between tennis traditionalists and pickleball devotees. If you’re already part of the pickleball craze, you’ll probably get an even bigger kick out of it. And if you’re not, the film is charming enough that you might just find yourself wanting to grab a paddle and see what all the fuss is about.
THE DINK streams on Apple TV+ Friday, July 25.