Perfect for, say, a mid-weeknight, low-key viewing, The Burial is a courtroom drama that never quite brings the tension inherent to the genre, but is perfectly adequate for what it is.
Tommy Lee Jones is a Mississippi funeral home owner- a veteran of the business who thinks it’s time to mostly cash out and spare the heirs the future paperwork hassle. He travels to Canada for a face-to-face meeting with a billionaire (the always great Bill Camp) who wants to buy Lee out for millions, to add to his own chain of mortuaries and cemeteries across the continent.
Fast forward: The deal that Jones made with the billionaire has fallen through—looks like the big chain is trying to cheat their way through. So, it’s a breach of contract story—but not really. What’s it’s really about is the relationship between Jones and Foxx, who Jones has hired (again, fast forwarding how and why) to represent him in the deep south with an all-black jury.
Yes, there are several racial components, but they are handled deftly, frankly and realistically.
Foxx’s character is so successful that he owns a jet and has a closet full of thousand-dollar suits, but Jones’s reasons for making Foxx the lead attorney are strategic. Meanwhile Foxx fancies himself the ascendant to Johnnie Cochran. By the way, the film is set in 1995, when Cochran was, perhaps, the most well-known lawyer in the country.
What follows is predictable and pretty much boilerplate, as far as the courtroom stuff goes. And yet, it’s a pleasant enough watch. Foxx avoids clowning and gives a sincere, believable performance. The cast meshes well together. The casting director got their money’s worth and then some here.
Would I hire a babysitter, pay for parking and take out financing to buy a tub of popcorn for it? No, but I’d put my sock feet on the coffee table and enjoy The Burial as a gentle ride on a low stakes weeknight.
The Burial is Rated R for language. In Limited Theaters and Available Now On Amazon Prime Video
NOTE : The actual lead defense attorney was not a woman.