AUSTIN — Fans of Robert Duvall’s work on Lonesome Dove will want to spend A Night in Old Mexico with the Oscar-winning actor.
His new film, which is screening at South By Southwest this week, is a redemptive story of Titus “Red” Bovie, an ex-rancher who’s evicted from his home place. “He’s kind of a descendant of the two guys in Lonesome Dove,” Duvall says. “It’s just a nice sweet film that we, (he and Lonesome Dove co-screenwriter Bill Wittliff) waited 25 years to do.”
On the day Bovie is evicted, a grandson he’s never known, Gally (Jeremy Irvine) shows up on his doorstep. The loner suddenly has a sidekick that he doesn’t want.
“He’s very set in his ways and tough on his newfound grandson and probably because he’s a very difficult guy to live with he’s lost a wife and a son,” says Duvall, 83. “But now his life is turning around in a very positive way.”
On their road trip, Bovie and Gally encounter some hit men and a lounge singer with big dreams. Duvall, a famed tango dancer, gets to show off his footwork in the film, and he sings a bit, something he did in the role of Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies, the 1983 film he won a best acting Oscar for. “My character knows how to dance and sing the cowboy way, really,” he says.
There’s a message for viewers in that none of the characters — Red, Gally or the singer Patty Wafers (Angie Cepeda) — are ready to give up on their dreams.
“Follow your dream and maybe your dreams pay off. Sometimes you don’t even know what your dreams are and they come to fruition and I think that happens in this film, definitely,” Duvall says.