It’s fitting that the crowd-pleasing and enormously entertaining “The Burial” is set in the mid-1990s, as this fictionalized telling of a true-life landmark legal case is reminiscent of the courtroom dramas from the time, e.g., “A Few Good Men” (1992), “Philadelphia” (1993), “The Pelican Brief” (1993), “A Time to Kill” (1996), “Primal Fear” (1996), “The Rainmaker” (1997), et al.
This is the kind of movie where the spectators in the courtroom burst into applause after one particularly rousing piece of theater from a flamboyant attorney, where you know a surprise witness will be discovered just when all hope seems to be lost, where the lead counsel for the underdog client will engage in histrionics that would put him in contempt of court IRL — but the judge merely gives him a warning, telling him to “tread lightly” before proceeding with his confrontational and over-the-top style of questioning.
As we’re reminded in the obligatory end credits telling us what happened to the main characters, this is a true story, based on a 1999 New Yorker article of the same name by Jonathan Herr. In the hands of director and co-writer Maggie Betts (with Doug Wright co-writing the script) and an ensemble of perfectly cast and brilliant actors, what we get is a highly stylized version of the truth that never misses the opportunity to pause proceedings for a timely lecture, and often resorts to heavy-handed visual cues reminding us that while this particular case doesn’t seem to be about race on the surface, you better believe it’s about race. (Cut to the shot of Johnnie Cochran on the TV in the hotel bar, in the midst of defending O.J. Simpson, as two Black attorneys with very different approaches to the law engage in a spirited debate about their respective career choices.)
A couple of pitch-perfect openers introduce us to our two main characters. Jamie Foxx brings his boundless charisma and screen-commanding, movie-star presence to the role of Willie E. Gary a Southern Baptist personal injury attorney who delivers fire-and-brimstone sermons in church on Sunday before heading back to a life so glamorous — from the Florida mansion to the gold-rimmed glasses to the flashy suits to the private jet dubbed “Wings of Justice” — that he’s been featured on “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous.”
Meanwhile, in a bucolic stretch of Biloxi, Mississippi, the low-key, warmhearted and universally respected Jeremiah “Jerry” O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) is celebrating his 75th birthday, surrounded by his loving wife, Annette (Pamela Reed), his 13 children and dozens of grandchildren. As the owner of a legacy family business that includes eight funeral homes and a burial insurance firm, Jerry is proud to have built something he can hand down to his family — but when Jerry runs into financial trouble, he finds himself having to make a deal with the Canadian billionaire Ray Loewen, who has been gobbling up independently owned funeral home businesses all over the United States and then exploiting the poorest clients in their most trying times. Boooo, hisss, this Loewen guy is the worst, and Bill Camp does a magnificent job as our story’s villain.
When Loewen’s company reneges on the deal and seems hell-bent on forcing Jerry into bankruptcy, Jerry sues for breach of contract.
Convinced his longtime friend and attorney Mike (Alan Ruck), with his air of privileged, white, not-so-subtle bigotry, isn’t the right fit for the case, Jerry takes the advice of his junior counsel Hal (Mamoudou Athie) and hires Willie and his team of sharks to take on the case. Loewen counters by bringing in a hotshot legal superstar in one Mame Downes (Jurnee Smollett). Now we’ve got all the players in place and it’s time to get down to the courtroom theatrics, the surprise revelations, the timely interludes in which Jerry and Willie bond, the reminders that we’re in the Deep South and that seemingly peaceful field over there is actually an unmarked cemetery for hundreds of slaves.
There is a never a moment when “The Burial” underplays its hand, and there are times when the story veers far away from the main battle, as when there’s a shocking courtroom revelation about the grandfather of one of the main characters — a revelation that has absolutely nothing, zero, to do with the case. Still, Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones are as great as you’d expect them to be, while Jurnee Smollet and Mamoudou Athie are equally impressive. (It comes as no surprise to learn Athie started his career onstage; at just 25, he has the presence and the chops of a Broadway force.)
On the surface, “The Burial” is about a contract dispute between a white small business owner and a white billionaire. Soon, though, it becomes about much more than that, and the result is a thoroughly entertaining, old-fashioned yet timely courtroom thriller.
