I WANTED TO LEARN HOW TO play tennis. Neither of my schools offered it as a sport. So, during a summer break, I signed up for tennis lessons through The Learning Annex. Classes were to meet at a tennis facility not too far from the downtown area. I was excited because the facility was home to a couple of tennis tournaments; I was hoping I would see someone “famous.” On the first day of class, there was a total of twelve students; we were split into two groups. It turned out I was the only left-handed person in my group. The first thing the instructor taught us was how to hold the tennis racket. He went up to each of us to check on our grip and make any needed adjustments. I thought things were going well, but when it came time to teach us how to serve, I could not get the hang of it as quickly as the others. It should not have been so difficult because all I had to do was switch his usage of right and left; but for some reason, I could not make it work. He tried working with me, but I could see he was not a patient person. The same thing happened when he was teaching us the ground strokes. While everyone’s ball was going to one side of the court, mine was going to the other side. I was getting self-conscious, uncomfortable, and started to feel like I was being left out. Gratefully, there were only two classes left.      FROM THAT EXPERIENCE, I DECIDED I would practice on my own and pay closer attention to televised matches. I used the side of my elementary school’s building to hit the ball against. When I got to college, I had a friend who taught me how to put spin on the ball. Up until that point, I was hitting flat straight balls. On the weekends, we would go down to the sports facility and get a court for us to hit the ball back and forth. Pretty soon I was able to add a little spin to my hits. We eventually started to play games and keep score. I never won but that was okay with me because I was not the type of person who was competitive. He was, however. I just wanted to have fun hitting the ball and trying to make the shots. This was something I never understood: if one was not having fun doing whatever sport then why do it. My friend never looked like he was having fun; it was all about the winning. Except in the earlier scenes of this film festival winner, I felt the same way about the main characters in this dramatic, sport romance. They did not look like they were having fun.      TWO FRIENDS VIE FOR THE ATTENTION of a tennis prodigy. There could only be one winner, so what would it take. With Mike Faist (West Side Story, The Bikeriders) as Art Donaldson, Josh O’Connor (God’s Own Country, The Crown-TV) as Patrick Zweig, Zendaya (Dune franchise, Spider-Man franchise) as Tashi Donaldson, newcomer Bryan Doo, and A.J. Lister (Birth/Rebirth) as Lily; this film was fortunate to have this cast in the roles. They were all good, helping to keep the intensity and drama up in this film. What I did not care for was the jumping back and forth in time; I quickly found it annoying. The action and editing cuts were so fast that I soon got tired watching them. It was a shame because I thought the story had merit, but I wonder how I would have felt if they stuck closer to a linear timeline. There were some scenes that did not seem believable to me, which may have added to my losing interest in the characters. With that being said, I still enjoyed the tennis matches and the few extremely dramatic scenes; but at the end, this was not a love match for me.               

2 ½ stars