Break Point

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.