I have a patchy relationship with Josh Greenbaum-directed narrative comedies. In 2021, he directed the Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo vehicle “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” an undersung hero of the absurdist comedy oeuvre. A couple of years later, we got the CGI dog comedy “Strays” – a far less successful outing, to say the least.
“The Dink,” Greenbaum’s newest film with a screenplay from Sean Clements, falls somewhere in the middle. The film follows Dusty Boyd (Jake Johnson), a former teenage tennis phenom who left the sport after a wrist injury (and a humiliating loss to Andy Roddick). Despite his fall from grace, there’s nothing Dusty loves more than tennis – and nothing he despises more than pickleball. Unfortunately for Dusty, pickleball is about to become an inevitability.
If I could speak on my own behalf, there’s no one who has more good will from me in Hollywood than Jake Johnson. I’ll give just about anything he does a chance, and in that regard, “The Dink” is … fine? It’s an inoffensive, forgettable comedy that only halfway plays to Johnson and the rest of the casts’ strengths. It’s not goofy or funny enough to be memorable, and often feels like a bit of an afterthought.
At the club where Dusty works as a tennis pro under the eye of his neglectful and disappointed father Chuck (Ed Harris), pickleball is taking over. With the pickleballers rallying for more courts, Chuck devises a plan to take them down once and for all, setting up a tennis match between the tennis side of the club and the pickleball side – winner gets the extra court space. Dusty wants to be the tennis side’s champion, but aggravates his old wrist injury before the match. Much to Dusty’s chagrin his doctor (a Ben Stiller cameo) recommends that he get into pickleball to assist with his recovery.
Everything I just wrote is, objectively, very silly. But “The Dink” just doesn’t endeavor to be silly enough in its style and its comedy. That doesn’t mean there aren’t funny moments – Aaron Chen’s dry, muted turn as PJ, Dusty’s ever-loyal sidekick, certainly elicited a wayward chuckle from me here and there. But “The Dink” can’t find the right balance between its attempts to be a heartfelt, underdog story about an emotionally stunted guy finally coming into his own and its attempts to be a silly pickleball sports comedy a la “Dodgeball.” The tones just don’t meld.
The tonal dissonance comes down to the fact that I’m not sure this movie knows quite what to do with Jake Johnson. Throughout his career, there have been certain films and shows that have managed to perfect his potent mix of rough charm, sweetness, and eccentricity, with “New Girl” probably nailing the balance most profoundly. For a short time, “The Dink” seems like it understands how to find that too – but then promptly squanders its most interesting storyline.
The most important aspect of Dusty’s pickleball journey is Candace (Mary Steenburgen), a recent divorcee decades his senior who is trying to start life anew. They become partners and start off on the wrong foot, but slowly start to find common ground. They’re both starting over, in a way, and they both often find themselves feeling deeply alone.
For a moment, the movie entertains the idea of a romantic relationship between Dusty and Candace – and those moments of flirtation are the only thing about “The Dink” that makes you sit up a little straighter in your seat. In the best scene in the film (that, for some reason, hinges on the romantic charms of country music), Dusty shows up at a party to help Candace make her ex-husband jealous. He dons a cowboy hat, twirls her around the dance floor, and even kisses her. It all feels genuinely romantic, if a little rough around the edges – the Jake Johnson special, if you will.
Watching this scene, it’s easy to believe a romance might occur, the audience lulled into that belief through the allure of Johnson’s charms and Steenburgen’s seeming interest. So, when Candace abruptly says she isn’t physically attracted to Dusty, it feels a bit like the movie was trying to fool us rather than engaging in good storytelling. It pulls the plug on its most intriguing aspect, and settles back into light, comedic mediocrity.
“The Dink” premieres on Apple TV on July 24.
