Based in the mid-90s, Amazon’s robust legal drama The Burial also moves like a movie made during that exact time, in the very best way possible. The period was jam-packed with grand, dad-pleasing films taking place in the courtroom, predominantly based on books by John Grisham, perfectly tailored to big stars seeking a way to show off their argumentative skills, an actors’ showcase that at the time couldn’t be topped.
Here it’s the turn of Jamie Foxx, the sort of big, charismatic movie star it’s become too easy to underestimate as it’s become so rare for us to see him operating at his very best. The last few years have given him precious few chances outside of a string of rote Netflix action movies but when allowed to swim in a deeper pool, as in 2019’s affecting, if underseen, drama Just Mercy or this year’s charming, if overstuffed, sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone, he instantly reminds us just what he can do and how well it can be done. At a time of a slight movie star crisis, his electric performance here is another reminder that we might have to continue looking to our past rather than our present if we want a re-up of A-list energy.
Based on a 1999 New Yorker article by Jonathan Harr, whose book A Civil Action was turned into a John Travolta-led legal drama back in 1998, The Burial is hinged on legal specifics that might seem awfully dry on paper, a case involving burial insurance and a contractual dispute. But in the hands of the writer-director Maggie Betts and her co-writer Doug Wright, it’s a surprisingly propulsive, commercially minded winner, the kind of film that they *whispers* just don’t make anymore.
Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones, muted and thoughtful) is a funeral home owner whose business difficulties have caused him to seek assistance elsewhere, which his lawyer (Alan Ruck) finds in the shape of the Loewen Group, a larger group promising to alleviate pressure with a small yet important deal. For O’Keefe, in his mid-70s, his priority is ensuring a future for his 13 children, leaving them behind a legacy that they can be proud of and financially supported by. But the deal turns sour, a contract unfulfilled, and with the help of a younger local attorney (Mamoudou Athie), O’Keefe is persuaded to approach Willie E Gary (Foxx), a flashy, larger-than-life lawyer. The case is set to be seen by a Black judge and, if it goes to trial, a mostly Black jury, and so the optics of having a Black lawyer are seen as vital. Gary is initially uninterested (he’s a personal injury lawyer with a universally Black client list) but when the gravity of the case, and its potential impact is realised, he suits up, ready for battle.
From a punchy first scene of Gary going big in the courtroom, playing to both his jury and to us, it’s clear that we’re in safe hands both with a crackerjack Foxx as our lead and with Betts pulling the strings, the sort of smooth studio crowd-pleaser that was once easy to take for granted but now extremely hard to resist. The hows and whys of the ever-evolving case are deftly explained, there are obvious yet effective pause-and-wait moments for laughter or applause and there’s emotional texture to a story that becomes less about one man and more about an entire broken system. Not only is the film rousingly anti-corporate greed but it’s also an angry jab at a country that continues to diminish and devalue black communities. In this specific and lesser-known instance, it’s how the so-called “deathcare” industry prices out and manipulates under-privileged people of colour, each new revelation more appalling than the last.
With a tightly packed story such as this, based on dense, detail-stuffed material, one often asks whether a documentary might have been the more compelling choice, so many recent fact-based dramas struggling to find a way to squeeze truth into a dramatically satisfying script. But there’s never such doubt here, the film not only justifying its own worth but making a persuasive case for the legal drama to make a bullish comeback beyond the small-screen procedural format. Foxx turns what could have been a lazy caricature into a real person, the work of both a movie star and an actor, as convincing when he’s loudly playing to the cheap seats as he is quietly emoting to the orchestra. He’s remarkably measured and has some fun rat-a-tat-ing with the wonderful, spiky Jurnee Smollett, as his formidable, if underwritten, foe in court.
There are moments where the script could afford a little more depth with some characters left a little wanting and a few crowd-pandering comedy bits that fall flat but it’s easy to forgive missteps when it’s wrapped up in such a simple swell of David v Goliath emotion. You’ll see exactly what The Burial is doing but you’ll fall for it anyway.
The Burial is now out in US and UK cinemas and will be available on Amazon on 13 October
