When it was announced that they would be teaming together for a new courtroom drama by Amazon MGM Studios, movie fans were buzzing for the premiere last month at the Toronto International Film Festival.
This Friday, “The Burial” finally premieres on Amazon Prime Video after a limited release in movie theaters last week to qualify for Oscar contention — and it’s one of the better courtroom dramas in recent years.
Based on a true story and adapted from a book by Jonathan Harris, the film is set in 1995 as the undefeated personal injury lawyer Willie E. Gary helps funeral-home owner Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe sue a large burial company, the Loewen Group, over a contractual dispute that ends up exposing an even deeper story of race and power.
Arriving on the 30th anniversary of his Oscar for “The Fugitive” (1993), Jones is one of the undisputed all-time greats. In “The Burial,” he shares black-and-white quips like “Men in Black” (1997), feels his age like “No Country for Old Men” (2007) and grapples with laws like “Lincoln” (2012). His wife is warmly played by Pamela Reed (“Parks and Recreation”), communicating with each other by a glance or smile as they consider settlements.
Meanwhile, Amanda Warren (“The Leftovers”) plays Foxx’s wife Gioria, grounding him by reminding him not to talk in the third person. After playing a meek defendant in “Just Mercy” (2019), Foxx is ultra charismatic as Gary, who comes from humble beginnings but is now a flashy TV star like Johnnie Cochran. He’s skeptical of Jerry’s white lawyer (Alan Ruck, “Succession”) and doesn’t think the case is big enough, urging the team to cast a wider net.
The big fish is billionaire tycoon Raymond Loewen, who cruises on a yacht like “Triangle of Sadness” (2022), brilliantly played by the always great Bill Camp of “The Night Of” (2016) and “The Queen’s Gambit” (2020). His defense attorney is played by Jurnee Smollett of “Eve’s Bayou” (1997) and “Lovecraft Country” (2020), who has fiery cross-examinations with Foxx at the witness stand, but deep down sympathizes with her opponent’s cause.
The dueling Black lawyers share an understanding of institutional racism. As Foxx and Jones gaze across a Southern field, powerful dialogue explains it’s an old slave burial ground, the kind that often results in rich white folks buried on top of unmarked Black graves. It’s here that the title shows its double meaning: the “burial” of history as we tell ourselves false narratives to make us feel better rather than face the hard truth of the past.
Director Maggie Betts, whose directorial debut “Novitiate” (2017) was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, films in New Orleans to show the run-down community of Foxx’s youth as a sharecropper. She co-writes the script with Doug Wright, who won both the Pulitzer and Tony for his play “I Am My Own Wife” (2004).
Their courtroom climax is inspirational but flawed as I wish we would have actually seen the closing arguments instead of cutting right to the verdict. Imagine “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), “The Verdict” (1982) or “Philadelphia” (1993) without the final speeches of Gregory Peck, Paul Newman and Denzel Washington? The closing credit text also deflates the balloon by revealing how future appeals reduced the damages rewarded.
Either way, the film leaves us with an overall sense of justice served where bad people get their comeuppance and good people not only prevail, but use their winnings to donate to charitable causes, all while lifelong friendships are forged across racial lines. Who knew that legal work about a dang funeral home could be this compelling?
