Revelers and rivals

Sure, Just Getting Started is only a movie, but it’s still painful to watch seniors act as if their many years have taught them nothing.

“Sex, booze, golf, and then you die,” quips Duke Diver (Morgan Freeman), resident manager of Villa Capri, a luxury retirement community in Palm Springs.

“Heaven is going to be a disappointment to you,” Leo McKay (Tommy Lee Jones) winks back.

If this film is any indication, Freeman, 80, and Jones, 71, aren’t looking to burnish their storied careers with meaningful roles. Perhaps Freeman is breaking the fourth wall when Duke says, “I’m just trying to fade into the sunset with a smile on my face.”

It’s the Christmas season at Villa Capri, where Duke is the life of the never-ending party. Men hang on his every gesture, and women throw themselves at him. But then Texas businessman Leo arrives in a pickup and ten-gallon hat—a real stretch for Jones, no? Leo moves into villa 71 and proceeds to beat Duke at his own games: poker, golf, and the ladies. Merely trophies to tussle over are the film’s women characters, including Suzie Quince (Rene Russo), a regional manager sent to scrutinize Villa Capri’s books.

The occasion of a hit man trying to kill Duke reluctantly rallies Leo to Duke’s corner but adds little intrigue to the film (rated PG-13 for language, suggestive material, and brief violence). Writer-director Ron Shelton, best known for sports movies like Bull Durham and White Men Can’t Jump, can’t find his way to deliver either a caper flick or a buddy movie. Freeman and Jones don’t mesh well here, and their innuendo-laced dialogue just gets old.

Conspicuously absent are children and grandchildren; Villa Capri’s residents don’t even have discussions about family. But the film’s oddest feature might be the singing. A half-dozen times, characters break out into religious Christmas carols but then return to wallowing in their undignified conversations.

Stars appear in this desert oasis, but no wise men.