FILM OF THE WEEK: The Dink - Reviewed by Roe McDermott

There was a time when Hollywood would happily churn out comedies like Dodgeball, Blades of Glory or Semi-Pro: low-stakes sports comedies where the fate of a gym, rink or forgotten pastime somehow felt like life and death. Throw in the easy warmth and intergenerational friendship plot of something like The Intern, and you have a good sense of what Apple TV+'s The Dink is aiming for. The setup is completely ridiculous, but for those of you who miss early-2000s studio comedies, there may be some light enjoyment for you here.

Jake Johnson plays Dusty Boyd, a former tennis prodigy who never recovered from the career that might have been. Working at his father's tennis club, he's horrified when pickleball threatens to take over the courts, and an increasingly ludicrous club dispute culminates in a match that will determine the club's future. The catch? To save tennis, Dusty has to learn the one sport he can't stand – one beloved by retirees who hand Dusty his ass on a racket.

Johnson is essentially playing another variation on his New Girl character Nick Miller; perpetually rumpled, emotionally stunted, gruffly charming and nursing old disappointments with equal parts self-pity and misplaced confidence. Thankfully, it's a persona he wears well, and even when Dusty is behaving like an insufferable man-child, Johnson's natural warmth stops him becoming exhausting.

The story eventually shifts into an unlikely friendship between Dusty and Mary Steenburgen's Candace, one of the local pickleball regulars. Steenburgen brings her usual warmth, and the relationship gives the film a little more emotional texture than you'd expect, with the pair forging a connection by swapping country music mixtapes and attending line dancing nights together. (The film’s interest in country music feels oddly shoe-horned in, like the movie is getting money from Big Stetson.) The sentimentality somewhat jars against the more absurd characters, including Ben Stiller’s sex-obsessed doctor and Aaron Chen’s deadpan side-kick, but Steenburgen’s always a charming delight.

The film also plays with some self-awareness around the ridiculousness of its stakes, which makes room for some fun, offbeat throwaway jokes. (A highlight is a dinner party guest being asked if they’ve read that new Malcolm Gladwell piece “about how The Beatles were good because they practiced?", and an awkward discussion about exactly who had historically been excluded banned from the local tennis club.) The film is at its best when leaning into eccentric side conversations than its more overt farce, but cameos from Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, and Christine Taylor never live up to their potential.

The Dink is a film-by-formula that’s 15 minutes longer than it needs to be, and will fade from memory before the weekend is out, but in week where The Odyssey has scared off every other mainstream release, it’s an easy-going, undemanding comedy to enjoy at home.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum. Written by Sean Clements. Starring Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Aaron Chen, Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnell, Andy Roddick, John McEnroe, Ben Stiller. 103 minutes.

• Out now on Apple TV+. Watch the trailer below: