Perhaps the most ill-timed movie title of the year (coming out within months of the “Point Break” remake), “Break Point” couldn’t be a more different movie than the one it will no doubt be endlessly confused with.
Not an action thriller about an FBI agent chasing bank robbing surfers (okay, “extreme sports enthusiasts”), “Break Point” is instead a breezy comedy about an over-the-hill tennis player (Jeremy Sisto) who attempts to extend his career by picking up a doubles partner–his brother (David Walton), a school teacher.
J.K. Simmons and Amy Smart also show up for a trifecta of underappreciated actors, Simmons’ Oscar notwithstanding. Sisto especially has been around for years, most knowing him as high school cad Elton macking on Cher (Alicia Silverstone) in “Clueless,” and turns in HBO’s “Six Feet Under” and 2007’s “Waitress.” He once played Jesus, for God’s sake.
But for some reason Sisto, who undoubtedly has leading-man looks and talent, has never broken through. And while a mid-September release about an aging tennis player is unlikely to propel him to mainstream stardom, it is a positive step that he is at least headlining a major motion picture.
Maybe audiences and studio heads will wake up and give him his due.
