Grief and tennis dramedy '30-Love' is all over the court

By Katie Walsh

Sept. 28, 2017 1:20 PM PT

A man turns to tennis to cope with the death of his wife in the insubstantial and odd grief and sports dramedy “30-Love,” co-written, directed by and starring Robert Cannon, whose character is credited only as “Kelly’s husband.”

After Kelly dies during childbirth, our protagonist, a Glendale Community College professor, left with a newborn to care for, throws himself into mastering his late wife’s favorite sport. He becomes obsessed with winning a tournament on the anniversary of her death, dedicates himself to training and develops a rivalry with an aggressive tourney jockey nicknamed Sleazeball (Shaw Davari). That’s one way to (not) deal with grief, and his parenting suffers for it.

Emotionally remote, “30-Love” can’t pull off the ace of a troubled, unlikable hero. He finds himself in a custody battle, and you actively root against him and for his adversarial mother-in-law, Helen (Brenda Vaccaro). He’s just too erratic and the film, similarly obsessed with tennis, doesn’t take the time to fully illustrate his psychology. It ends on a rather strange and unsettling note. Framed in a different context, this story could almost be a horror film.

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