Slacker Swagger--How ‘Newton Boys’ Ran Wild

It’s probably not fair to “The Newton Boys” to call it a slacker western. Or to lament that “Young Guns” would have been a sprightlier title if it hadn’t already been taken. But absent much of anything that’s distinctive in this film, comparisons to other movies are what come to mind.

Co-written and directed by “Slacker’s” Richard Linklater, “The Newton Boys” is neither bothersome nor exciting. It has periodic bursts of action, as befits the story of “the most successful bank robbers in the history of the United States,” but an edge-of-your-seat affair this is not. The film exists mainly on style and attitude, both of which wear thin as time marches on.

The four Newton brothers, robbers of more than 80 banks in Texas and the Midwest between 1919 and 1925, were real people, and the most fun this film provides is clips (run alongside the closing credits) of two of the siblings in their declining years. The sight of Willis Newton matching wits with Johnny Carson is more fun than everything that precedes it.

What Hollywood saw in the Newton saga is the chance to have four cute guys swagger around in period costumes. Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich and Vincent D’Onofrio are the quartet of rascally individuals, good old boy bandits whom grateful victims invariably describe as “a bunch of please and thank you country boys.”

Writer-director Linklater has made a career of detailing the peregrinations of the young and the restless in films like “Dazed and Confused,” “Before Sunrise” and the unspeakable “SubUrbia.” He (and co-writers Claude Stanush & Clark Lee Walker) have conceived of the Newtons as kings of cool, and while this casual, relaxed feeling is pleasant for a while, it’s not enough to build an entire picture around.

“The Newton Boys” starts in Uvalde County, Texas, in 1919, the kind of rural locale where squirrel dumplings is the plat du jour. Brother Jess (Hawke) is teaching baby brother Joe (Ulrich) the finer points of breaking horses when brother Willis (McConaughey) shows up after a stint behind bars.

Willis is irked, not just because he was put away for something he didn’t do but because society is intent on holding that prison sentence against him. He’s bothered enough to join career criminal and nitroglycerin expert Brentwood Glasscock (Dwight Yoakam) and a pal in a daring daylight robbery of a bank that doesn’t quite turn out as planned.

Glasscock never wanted to do a daylight job to begin with; “that damn Jesse James routine,” he complains, “went out at the turn of the century.” He and Willis decide to be better prepared in the future, working out detailed escape routes and concentrating on old-fashioned square-doored safes that can be easily blown apart during late-night criminal forays.

Willis relocates in staid Omaha, where a question about what’s fun brings a “you could chew gum” reply (the film’s funniest line). Needing lookouts, Willis remembers his brothers, especially tough-guy Dock (D’Onofrio), but his younger siblings need convincing to depart from the straight and narrow.

Willis is up to the task, coming up with a speech about how taking insured money from banks is not the same as stealing from people. “We’re just little thieves stealing from the big thieves” is how he puts it. “Banks have been dealing dirty to our people since before we were born.”

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The outlaw is equally glib with Louise Brown, a single mother he has eye on, played by “ER’s” Julianna Margulies. Unfortunately, none of the women in this picture, including the playful and eccentric Chloe Webb, who appears as Glasscock’s wife, aren’t given anything to do that isn’t generic and predictable.

“The Newton Boys” presents several robberies for our amusement, but they are too lackadaisical to be more than moderately involving. The film tries to rouse itself for the traditional “one last big job and then we’re outta here” finale, but doesn’t quite manage to overcome its general level of genial torpor.

Though the actors, especially a well-used McConaughey, have charm to spare, nothing they do feels as if it matters, and the fraternal roughhousing that characterizes the boys’ relationship has limited appeal. Nothing seems individual about “The Newton Boys,” nothing compels you to watch it. Just because everyone wants to make a western doesn’t mean everybody should.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for violence, including bloody aftermath of a shooting, and for language. Times guidelines: violence near the close much stronger than earlier in the film.

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‘The Newton Boys’

Matthew McConaughey: Willis Newton

Ethan Hawke:Jess Newton

Skeet Ulrich: Joe Newton

Vincent D’Onofrio: Dock Newton

Dwight Yoakam: Brentwood Glasscock

Julianna Margulies: Louise Brown

Chloe Webb: Avis Glasscock

A Detour production, released by Paramount Pictures. Director Richard Linklater. Producer Anne Walker-McBay. Executive producer John Sloss. Screenplay Richard Linklater & Claude Stanush & Clark Lee Walker, based on the book by Claude Sanush. Cinematographer Peter James. Editor Sandra Adair. Costumes Shelley Komarov. Music Edward D. Barnes. Production design Catherine Hardwick. Art directors Andrea Dopaso, John Frick. Set decorator Jeanette Scott. Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.