Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The Dink review — Is this gentle pickleball comedy a hit or a whiff? A committed pickleball enthusiast weighs in.

I couldn’t watch Apple TV’s new The Dink without my bestie Sara by my side. Several years my junior, she is the Queen of the Pickleball scene in our neighborhood, and has organized an entire pickleball league based in her home pickleball court.

By choice, I am not a member of this league, as I’m still a little dubious about the sport in general. For this reason, I thought it best to get the help of an enthusiast to write my review. Neither one of us is objective, but perhaps we could balance each other out.

So we huddled up with our hubbies one Friday night in front of a 98-inch television screen and watched the comedy about the sport of pickleball and its rivalry with tennis. If nothing else, we thought the cast of comedy veterans would amuse us.

On the roster are Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Aaron Chen, Ben Stiller, Ed Harris, Chloe Fineman, Fortune Feimster and Patton Oswalt, in addition to tennis greats Andy Roddick and John McEnroe, the latter who surprisingly reveals that he has excellent, self deprecating comedy chops.

The fact that it’s directed by Josh Greenbaum, famous for with Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar  and the Peabody Award winning documentary Will & Harper, seemed promising to us, as well as the fact that Stiller and Johnson are producing.

The Dink review — a plot play by play

It focuses on Dusty Boyd, a hapless but engaging Johnson who plays a has-been tennis prodigy, currently reduced to coaching bratty kids at the country club his father (Harris) runs. As with seemingly all country clubs these days, the pickleball trend is rising, and those who are part of it are campaigning for more and better court space.

Meanwhile, the old school tennis players are fighting back, defending the club’s tennis tradition. At first, Dusty is blindly faithful to his father’s preferences, seeking his long withheld affection and approval.

But when he gets involved with a provocative group of senior pickleball players, especially a very attractive one played by Steenburgen, things begin to change.

Cliches abound, but many of them are hilariously and skillfully upended. Both tennis players and pickleballers are gently skewered. We were delighted to see a May-December relationship take an unexpected turn.

As someone who is neither rabidly devoted to pickleball nor tennis, I found the film sweetly engaging, with plenty of snickers leading to outright guffaws. I was continuously peeking over at Sara, to make sure she was equally amused.

She was! She rode right along with the jibes poked at both pickle ballers and tennis players. She summarized the movie like this: “All the things they say about pickleball, both good and bad, are true. Sure, it’s kind of dorky and some followers are a little too crazy about it, but a lot of great pro tennis players have picked it up, giving it a lot of cred.

“In essence, pickleball is about community. That’s what I love about it, and what I like about this movie,” she continued. “The Dink” really shows this. I really want to watch it again with my pickleball girls.”

And get this: Our husbands actually agreed! Perhaps it’s because we lulled them into good humor with a cool, crisp chardonnay, but in any case, The Dink comes very highly recommended. Cheers!

Rated PG-13

1 Hour 42 Minutes

If this The Dink review encourages you to gather your girls at home and watch the match, see it on Apple TV.

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s The Dink review — Is this gentle pickleball comedy a hit or a whiff? A committed pickleball enthusiast weighs in.