The Burial, 2023.
Directed by Maggie Betts.
Starring Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones, Jurnee Smollett, Alan Ruck, Mamoudou Athie, Pamela Reed, Bill Camp, Amanda Warren, Dorian Missick, Teisha Speight, Tywayne Wheatt, Lance E. Nichols, Keith Jefferson, B.J. Clinkscales, Doug Spearman, Gralen Bryant Banks, David Maldonado, Billy Slaughter, Christopher Winchester, Erika Robel, Lorna Street Dopson, Donna Duplantier, David Alexander, Andrea Frankle, Logan Macrae, Summer Selby, David Shae, Eric Mendenhall, Dan Thorp, Jason Bayle, Jim Klock, Vince Pisani, Jesse Gavin, George Ketsios, Mike Harkins, Patrick Gallagher, and Willie E. Gary.
SYNOPSIS:
Inspired by true events, a lawyer helps a funeral home owner save his family business from a corporate behemoth, exposing a complex web of race, power, and injustice.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, The Burial wouldn’t exist.
The 1995 true-story courtroom battle depicted in The Burial has all the makings of a circus show, with characters acknowledging that. With the lawsuit filed in an impoverished, minority-centric area in Mississippi (meaning a predominantly Black jury and judge), funeral director Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) reassigns his trusted contract dispute lawyer Mike Alfred (Alan Ruck) to more of a backseat role, considering his choice of words – not to mention privately admitting to the team that he is working on overcoming his prejudices – and body language doesn’t exactly court public opinion to their side.
Jeremiah brings in a charismatic, wannabe Johnny Cochran named Willie E. Gary (Jamie Foxx), a wealthy personal injury lawyer who hasn’t lost a case in years, agreeing to enter into uncharted territory taking on a contract dispute to further his notoriety, especially since all parties involved come to an agreement that this case is the tip of the iceberg for a horrifyingly important situation regarding the exploitation of those grieving and looking to bury their loved ones.
They are suing Bill Camp’s Ray Loewen, a nasty piece of work gleefully excited for his funeral homes to profit from impending mass baby boomer death and continuously expanding his reach for that morally queasy gain. The mission is to prove that Ray is stalling a payment regarding the purchase of some funeral homes from Jeremiah and contract signing prohibiting him from selling insurance in his Mississippi stomping grounds, showing motive that it is a heartless attempt to bankrupt the well-meaning, financially struggling, elderly funeral director who wants to leave behind something of value to his family. Naturally, Ray and his team discover what and who they will be up against, playing into the racial narrative and not only hiring a Black lawyer for themselves, but a woman in Jurnee Smollett’s Mame Downes, fighting fire with fire, or Blackness with Blackness.
Having a Black director at the helm in Maggie Betts certainly helps (co-writing alongside Doug Wright and based on an article by Jonathan Harr) keep the film itself from spiraling into a circus since it is essentially a film about two white men employing Black legal consultants to save their respective asses. To clarify, The Burial is a comedy above all else, perfectly juxtaposing the hotshot hilarious Willie Gary (who says things like “objection your honor on the basis that she’s just angry! or occasionally refers to himself in the third person in front of loved ones and friends) with the quietly serious Jeremiah who is concerned with losing his business and letting his family down.
Dramatically, the filmmakers know where and when to explore those racial dynamics, even if the scattershot narrative and concurring plot threads don’t come across as deep as they could and should. Given the crowd-pleasing nature that gets the job done through consistent streams of laughs, compelling courtroom drama, and some legitimately outrageous discoveries taking advantage of the less fortunate, the proceedings largely stay alive and engaging.
The events of The Burial also happen during the infamous O.J. Simpson trial, where Willie and Mame have a brief conversation before getting to work in the courtroom. The juicy details of that dialogue exchange come down to Mame stating that she would defend someone she knows is in the wrong just to try it once, presumably implying that she knows her client is in the wrong. There is an alternate, possibly even stronger piece of drama right there in watching a smart and talented Black woman provide legal support for shady clients, to play this morality-draining game.
Nevertheless, the bulk of the story follows the budding friendship between Willie and Jeremiah, not through the lens of race but rather through their ambition and similar characteristics. Racism is tackled through corporate greed rather than a generic tale of a white man overcoming racism. Here, it is the opposite, with Willie partially drawn to Jeremiah because he has taken a stand against the KKK (in Mississippi, of all places) in the past. The conflicting tones of comedy and drama mesh well on screen, although the film can occasionally drag when it drifts exclusively into serious-minded territory (such as portraying the relationship between Jeremiah and his wife every so often).
Or perhaps it is upbeat, rousing, hysterical, and charming when Jamie Foxx is on screen that his absence is immediately noticeable (at one point, he delivers a gripping monologue detailing his journey to becoming a lawyer and rise in success.) His chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones feels believable and sincere, even if it’s well-trodden material. Above all else, The Burial is lightweight and fun, with upsetting observations regarding race and social class, even if the meat of the story is fairly familiar and nothing remarkable.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
