Break Point

One thing is for sure after watching this movie. I will never watch a movie again about tennis. Tennis in real life is a little bit boring but in a movie it is an absolute disaster. Half of the movie it is just movie shots of the ball bouncing back and forth. So when it's not even a real competition it's really boring, like watching somebody practice, there is absolute no joy in that besides for the player himself. Now I thought there would be a little bit of humour in it, but even that is not good. It's the kind of humour that sometimes make you have a tiny little grin and then you hope there will be more and better. But that never happens in the whole movie. If you have absolutely nothing else to do just go out and play tennis yourself, you will be more entertained.

The plot is predictable. But the cast makes this movie worth watching. It had just enough tough love to balance the saccharine in the coming of age and late bloomer film.

This is fantastic little movie about family and brotherhood and even if you don't know much about tennis, you'll find a thing or two that you can appreciate about BREAK POINT. Funny and heartwarming, a pleasant surprise. Great ensemble cast: Jeremy, David, Amy, Vincent, J.K. and Joshua are a delight to watch.

One of the things appealing about BREAK POINT is that there is strength in its simplicity. Whereas other movies would spend a lot of time and try too hard to be all profound when it doesn't need to be, BREAK POINT accomplishes depth and profundity in just 90 minutes and it doesn't shove them down our throats. Yes, it's a comedy, but one that's so engaging with themes that are so common, this is a comedy that leaves you feeling hopeful in the end whatever the result of the tennis match may be. There's a bit of 'Rocky' in there, there's a bit of sibling friction and a bit of mentorship as well, you can't help but like BREAK POINT, it's simply irresistible and effective.

Jeremy Sisto plays the reckless man-child Jimmy who's at his age when other tennis players just don't see him as having any future in the sport, his last partner drops him just as he's planning to enter a grand slam tournament, and so in desperation, he reaches out to his childhood partner, his estranged brother Darren whom he dropped years ago. Darren, a more reserved and conservative tennis player still feels the hurt after all these years but after being convinced by an 11-year old named Barry who looks up to him, Darren decided to take his brother up on his offer and so goes their journey to train together and re-learn and re-discover their game once again while finding out what it means to be brothers.

This Jimmy and Darren dynamic reminds me of the Odd Couple, as if Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar were on the Tennis court. The jokes are rated R but they're on target and edgy, Jeremy Sisto in particular gets to say the best lines in this film, and young actor Joshua Rush excellently holds his own in the midst of these two adult brothers trying to prove themselves once more. And in a way, it's also a dudes type of movie and I don't mean that in a sexist or one-sided manner, what I mean is that the way the brothers resolve their conflict is like any regular dudes would, meaning whatever resentment we may have, we can easily shrug it off, sometimes, not in all cases, but we don't talk about it for hours, we'd pull a 'forget about it' card and that's why I think BREAK POINT speaks more truth than most of the movies about brothers I've seen out there.

Jimmy Price (Jeremy Sisto) is a tennis player on his last legs. He antagonizes everybody including his doubles partner. He needs a new partner. His veterinary father Jack (J.K. Simmons) suggests his younger brother Darren (David Walton) despite double-crossing him when they were younger. Darren is a substitute teacher who is befriended by a clingy boy named Barry. Darren is taken with Jack's assistant Heather (Amy Smart) who has boyfriend Gary. Barry opines, "Our names rhyme. It's mildly amusing".

One gets the feeling that this was written as a wacky comedy but it's at best mildly amusing. Neither Sisto nor Walton are outright comedians although they sometimes do comedic acting. In this one, they don't really try that hard. The lines are sometimes there but the delivery is flat. I keep thinking this is a Will Ferrell comedy without Will Ferrell. It might be better to go darker and more serious with the story. Or just give it to Ferrell for him to go completely nuts.

The movie is not met to change lives but it will supply you with a lot of laughs if you go out and see it.

Especially, Jeremy Sisto, who nailed it. He showed some serious comedy chops that I did not know he had. Think I only see him in dramas like Law & Order. He was brilliant as the charming lovable washed up Tennis player trying to get back into the game.

Although I felt David Walton, who played the younger brother who was loured back onto the courts by his brother so he can play doubles, was not that good of a straight man to Sisto's hilarious performance, but his relationship with an eleven year old boy he substitute taught for was where he got to shine. These two were too much together.

It's not going to be the greatest sports movie of all time or the greatest sports comedy ever, In fact the whole Tennis thing feels no more than back ground for the relationship of all the characters, which includes J.K. Simmons as the dad, but overall it's a guaranteed laugh. You won't be able to help yourself.