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“This isn’t the first time two men have fought over me,” Rene Russo says in “Just Getting Started.” That’s about the funniest line in the movie, and it’s a bit of a meta-joke. This isn’t even the first time two guys have battled for Ms. Russo’s favor in a film written and directed by Ron Shelton.

The humor is self-defeating, though, since this wheezy romantic caper — with Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman as the rival suitors — inspires little more than melancholy reminiscences of Mr. Shelton’s earlier work. Male competition, in sports and romance, has been his chief interest as a screenwriter and a filmmaker, and it has yielded some pretty good work over the years. “Bull Durham” and “White Men Can’t Jump,” most memorably, but also underrated entertainments like “Tin Cup” (in which Ms. Russo was the prize sought by Kevin Costner and Don Johnson) and “Hollywood Homicide,” which hold up better than you might expect.

A preview of the film.Published OnDec. 11, 2017CreditImage by Internet Video Archive

This one should be better than it is. There were no advance screenings for critics — never a promising sign — but I bought a ticket and sat in a Manhattan theater with a half-dozen other oddballs over the weekend and a flicker of hope in my heart. The cast includes, in addition to the three points of the romantic triangle mentioned above, such fine comic and character performers as George Wallace, Joe Pantoliano, Elizabeth Ashley and Jane Seymour. Johnny Mathis is in it, too! How dire could it be?

Plenty dire, and not in a way that’s any fun to contemplate. The premise has some farcical potential. Mr. Freeman is Duke Diver, the manager of a Palm Springs retirement community with some unsavory secrets in his past. Someone is trying to kill him, but that’s the least of his troubles. The big one is the arrival of Leo McKay, a Texas big shot with a military background and a hidden agenda. He parks his pickup truck in Duke’s designated spot, wins Duke’s money in a poker game and moves in on Duke’s trio of friends with benefits (Glenne Headly, Ms. Ashley and Sheryl Lee Ralph). And then Suzie Quince (Ms. Russo) shows up to audit Duke’s books and accelerate the plot.

Which sadly does not happen. In spite of the charm and discipline of the stars, the jokes misfire and the scenes creak and stumble. That it all takes place around Christmas time in the desert just makes everything sadder. “Just Getting Started,” which should skip and sprint, feels slow and interminable, as if someone were reciting the plot of a Ron Shelton movie he or she had seen once on a plane. As soon as it’s underway, you wonder when it will be over.