Amazon Prime recently released the inspiring courtroom drama The Burial starring Tommy Lee Jones (The Comeback Trail, 2020) and Jamie Foxx (They Cloned Tyrone, 2023) as a plaintiff and a lawyer in a David vs. Goliath civil trial from 1995. The Burial is a real-life story adapted from a 1999 article in The New Yorker by Jonathan Harr. I have not read this article before or after watching The Burial because I actually lost interest more and more gradually as this film continued.
All the dialogue is written with such sincerity and such heart describing an elderly funeral home owner in southern Mississippi fighting against the greed of a large corporate owner. But the sincerity and heart are far too much, so the moments that try to be powerful and moving end up feeling very two-dimensional with a banality reminiscent of Hallmark Christmas movies.
Jamie Foxx is partly entertaining to watch as the flashy, big-talking lawyer who learns the value of working for the little guy instead of raking in the millions. But none of the actors are given any material that's thoughtful enough to help them portray interesting people. At least Jamie Foxx looks like he's having some fun.
Maybe I'm being too harsh with these words. The Burial is not a disaster, but it is a disappointment trying too hard to cover too many topics and clumsily mixing lighthearted humor and serious drama. (One scene has some innocent sarcastic jokes with a following scene bluntly using the F-word.) Near the end of the film a supporting character gives a short monologue on the mass burials of dead slaves from the antebellum South. That moment had my feelings and my attention completely, because it felt well-written and well-acted. If only the rest of this film could have that same quality.
It's a refreshing idea to have the white savior trope reversed in this film. (No more films like Freedom Writers, 2007; The Blind Side, 2009; or The Help, 2011 please.) But director Maggie Betts (Novitiate, 2017) would be more successful to give a less cliche treatment of this anti-conglomerate true story of the underdog. Being the film equivalent of overcooked comfort food, The Burial is not the worst film I've seen this year. But it's far from my first choice.
