REVIEW: The Burial [2023]

Rating: R | Runtime: 126 minutes
Release Date: October 6th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Amazon Studios
Director(s): Maggie Betts
Writer(s): Doug Wright and Maggie Betts / Doug Wright (story) / Jonathan Harr (New Yorker article “The Lawyer Who Tried to Bury a Funeral-Home Empire”)

I’m talking about some Jean-Claude Van Damme ass-kicking shit.

I get that the case Jeremiah O’Keefe v The Loewen Group is supposed to be a circus, but the trial moments (courtroom and behind the scenes) in Maggie Betts’ The Burial have to be the goofiest I’ve seen in years. It’s one thing to present Jerry’s (Tommy Lee Jones) lawyer Willie Gary (Jamie Foxx) as a fast-talking, charismatic preacher sermonizing to the jury, but it’s another to just let him make the biggest mistake he can with zero lead-up and pretend it doesn’t make him look like a fool. Add the Harvard graduate super team on the other side led by Mame Downes (Jurnee Smollett) acting like they’re surprised when the prosecution does do their job and that circus becomes a farce.

Most of this is due to the rushed nature of Betts and co-writer Doug Wright’s script choosing to devote its time and energy to the characters rather than the case. They weren’t wrong to choose the former, I only wonder if there was a way to balance things better since it becomes hard to take anything seriously with screaming lawyers and comical jury box reaction shots. By the time the Loewen CEO (Bill Camp) takes the stand in a last-ditch effort ploy as ill-conceived as Willie putting Jerry up there earlier, I found myself wishing they’d stop going into the courtroom completely. Because the real success is Jerry and Willie bonding. Much more than the underlying, familiar tale of corporate greed.

Foxx and Jones are great. This probably would have earned the former an Oscar nomination ten years ago because the studio would have put a lot more clout behind it—more than today as a Prime Video offering. A Golden Globe nod is still on the table, though. Either would be deserving because Foxx is carrying the whole show on his back. He needs to considering all the tonal shifts and flirtations with satire (Amanda Warren’s Gloria Gary’s designer clothes) that never really go anywhere. Neither does that corporate greed angle since this is a contract dispute and not a class action suit. Loewen’s evil acts upon Black Americans are revealed for the benefit of one white man. It’s all really weird.

And is it just me or does Alan Ruck initially play Jerry’s lawyer Mike Allred as a duplicitous opportunist looking to gut his friend rather than have his back? I was genuinely flabbergasted when all that set-up for him to admit he was in Loewen’s back pocket was revealed as apparently being wholly in my imagination. I guess he was just casually racist. But not maliciously racist? Enough to cause a stir, create an exit, and never be heard from again. That’s kind of The Burial’s modus operandi outside of Willie’s personal trajectory of empathetic growth. Everything is a means to an end and then forgotten. It leads to an entertaining yet messy affair.