By Nicholas Vermaaten, Contributor

[Amazon Studios; 2023]

Rating: 5/10

The storied career of attorney Willie Gary is one full of interesting judicial stories. From his lawsuits against Disney and Anahesier Bucsh, the title of ‘The Giant Killer’ is a worthy one for such an interesting character. With this in mind, the act of adapting his most famous case, that being O’Keefe vs The Loewen Group, into a major motion picture is an idea with quite a lot of cinematic potential. However, The Burial, directed by Maggie Bates, does very little with that potential, instead becoming a mostly ‘by the numbers’ feel-good court dramedy.

Read more: Movie Review: Your Place or Mine 

The Burial follows Willie Gary (as portrayed by Jamie Foxx) and Jerry O’Keefe (as portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones) in their court case against Loewen Funeral Home, a multimillion-dollar Canadian corporation, which has pretensions of monopolizing the Mississippi funeral industry. Beyond the judicial plot, the film mostly focuses on the blossoming friendship of the two leads, hoping that the chemistry between these two award-winning actors will be enough to entertain audiences throughout its two-hour runtime.

From his very first scene, where Willie Gary is found preaching to a Baptist congregation, the audience is charmed by Jamie Foxx’s energetic bombast and heightened gospel-preacher personality. His acting is ecstatic, with lively mannerisms and exuberant line reading. He is always shown to be ready to out charisma even the most intelligent opposing attorney. On the other hand, Jerry O’Keefe is a quiet southern businessman, one who counts his words and contains his emotions. But Tommy Lee Jones goes too far in his ‘poker face’ performance, creating a character that refuses to emote beyond dry, emotionless line reading (and a later moment of ‘old-man-dancing’). 

A scene that highlights this disconnect between Jones and Foxx happens on Willie Gary’s private plane. The film attempts to establish a connection between these characters through Jerry’s newly founded love of R&B music. Yet, the way in which Jerry repeats the line ‘It Feels Good’ comes with a sort of awkward uncanniness, as compared to the excited line reading Willie sings out. This awkwardness continues throughout the rest of the film, becoming very distracting in moments when a more emotional performance would have helped audiences relate to Jerry on a more personal level.

The technical aspects of the film are serviceable, if less than engaging. Cinematography is never used in an artistic way, instead just flatly capturing moments of extended dialogue. The editing does its job, logically connecting one scene to the next, and the music ranges from oddly whimsical melodies to pretty catchy licensed R&B tracks. None of these elements really add anything to the cinematic experience, instead being set-dressing to the performances and storytelling of the film in general. 

Overall, The Burial is a film that meets expectations more than it exceeds them. It’s a fine enough piece of disposable entertainment, made somewhat interesting by an ‘inspired by true events’ story. But, its refusal to stand out means you’ll likely forget much of it as the credits begin to roll.