After its, very, limited theatrical release last week. Maggie Betts’ “The Burial” is now available on Amazon Prime where it should find a fairly large audience.
The reviews have been good for Betts’ film — 75 on Metacritic and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, don’t kid yourself, this is a safely conventional film that is only saved by Jamie Foxx’s magnetic performance. He’s that good.
“The Burial,” a courtroom drama, written by Doug Wright, is the type of baity movie that used to get made in the ‘90s and I do mean that as both a good and bad thing.
The lead actors here are Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. Their chemistry is what damn-near saves the movie from succumbing to every possible cliche in the book. The film is driven by nostalgic filmmaking, it lives and dies on it.
This is a true story about the friendship that developed between a white Mississippi funeral director and his bling bling hotshot Black attorney. Foxx’s high-energy performance as Willie E. Gary is also a total hoot, he’s a Florida personal injury attorney, an ambulance chaser, who unabashedly flashes his colourful $10,000 suits and jewelry. He even owns a private jet named “Wings of Justice.”
Jones’ World War II veteran, Jeremiah O’Keefe, is his polar opposite. He’s looking to sell a portion of the family business he inherited from his father, but is hoodwinked by funeral home mogul Ray Loewen (Bill Camp) trying to screw him over.
Soon Heremiah gets the idea of hiring Foxx’s attorney to try the case in a majority Black county which means it will primarily be composed of a black jury. Loewen hears about that and hires his own black attorney, Jurnee Smollett plays the fictional Mame Downes — who clerked for Sandra Day O’Connor.
While we can guess what the outcome of the trial will be, this is the Jamie Foxx show. The anticlimactic ending, not to mention thin supporting characters, can’t stop this blazing turn from the talented actor. Foxx is vibrant, hilarious and it’s one of the best performances of his career. [B-]