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Red Bovie (Robert Duvall) is a progressively grumpy old man who has been cut off from his son for a considerable time. A developer is forcing him out of the old family ranch in Texas for the construction of “ranchettes” For Red, life seems cynical and hostile. If Duvall were not playing the role, you would do anything to not be around him. It is exruciatingly bad to sit through “A Night in Old Mexico” which Emilio Aragon directed and Bill Wittliffe of “Lonesome Dove” penned. Duvall is among the greatest actors of our time. He completely commands screen presence in even the most mundane actions: self contained chuckles, speaking softly to himself, and squinting his eyes when taking stock of things around him. It’s captivating. For what end purpose? The film is over-simplified fake. The purposefully outrageous coincidences in addition to tired clichés combined with soap-opera level human relationships make it so. There is nothing Duvall cannot justify, he is that type of actor. Sadly, “A Night in Old Mexico” did not give him a worthy story great enough to capture his caliber. Up there, he’s seems to be performing alone for a large chunk.
In the movie “A night in Old Mexico”, veteran Red Bovie spends his earnings on alcohol and women for one last escapade in Mexico. His grandson, Gally (Jeremy Irvine), who happens to be a city teenager, shows up right after Red is thrown out of his new depressing home, a dusty old caravan. After a reluctant start, Red and Gally set off to Mexico in a van they mysteriously found on the street. During the journey, they pick up two men who just finished betraying a Mexican gangster and are now on the run with a truck-load of cash. Instead of taking them hellbent on the journey, Red decides to kick them out halfway only to regret that decision later when he realizes that the money they were carrying is still in the van…
Red struts through the busy streets of Mexico, where he indulges in some girl watching and greets people as Gally walks beside him with an annoyed attitude. Gally exclaims, “This is a house of prostitution!” in despair, while Jeremy Irvine, playing Gally, looks terribly out of place in his role. To Duvall, he gives responses like, “somewhat annoyed” “more annoyed,” and lastly “super annoyed.” The emotional journey of the grandson attempting to connect with his roots to get to know his grandfather is quite palpable in Wittliff’s script, but Irvine tackles it on a skin deep level. He is not able to work with Duvall, and in several of the bigger confrontational scenes, he is almost desperately searching for a hand hold. You hear about great performers like Duvall helping untrained actors step out of their comfort zones, but that hasn’t helped Irvine. He is strictly one note.
While several villains try to retrieve their money, Red and Gally wander around Mexico. During the adventure, they encounter a stripper named Patty Wafers (Angie Cepeda), who is a hard-nosed woman that develops a fondness for Red because he dances with her and makes her laugh. She makes it work, which speaks a lot of her talent. Later, she tells Gally that Red “saw me for me,” which is fundamentally untrue. Red was looking at her the same way every other guy in the joint was. The only variation to the theme is he is, you know, Robert Duvall. None of this is believable and A Night in Old Mexico loves Duvall so much it fails to do the work needed to make any of this credible.
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