I’ve been hearing about pickleball for several years now, though I had no idea what it was. A sport? A game? I was pretty sure it nothing to do with the culinary arts.

Then a few days ago Jonathan Moya gave a positive review to the new Apple TV movie The Dink, and as it starred both Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen, and I was in the mood for a comedy, I decided to give it a try.

I liked Johnson in the recent season of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, and who doesn’t like Mary Steenburgen? They seemed like an odd but interesting pairing.

As usual I don’t like to give away too much of the plot, but in this case there isn’t that much to give away. It’s a classic story of a jerk who learns better with the help of a good woman. Or maybe it’s a timeless tale of a child who tries to get his father’s respect. Or perhaps it’s a sports story about— 

Oh, never mind. It’s all of the above and much more.

I will say this, though. Johnson’s character really does start out as a total jerk. No, make that an absolute asshole. In fact, I almost turned it off after the first few minutes as he completely pissed me off, but I’m glad I stayed with it.

And one more thing. About halfway though the picture, Johnson and Steenburgen are watching The Graduate together, and apparently Johnson’s character has never seen or heard of the star of that flick before. Given one of the, uh, prominent physical characteristics of Jake Johnson, I got a kick out of how he described Dustin Hoffman.

There are some other well known actors in supporting roles. Ed Harris plays his father, Patton Oswalt is an antagonist, and John McEnroe has a hilarious cameo. Ben Stiller, who also produced, plays a doctor, and he reminded me of another sports-related movie—Dodgeball—that Stiller was involved in years ago.

And now I finally know what pickleball is. When tennis and badminton had a fling, their illegitimate spawn was pickleball.