By Tim Jackson 

Director Maggie Betts has much to keep in check — a courtroom drama and an exposé of corporate greed and racial politics in Mississippi.

The Burial, directed by Maggie Betts. Playing on Amazon Prime

Jamie Foxx as William Gary in The Burial. Photo: Amazon Prime

The Burial is the story of Florida attorney Willie Gary’s most significant case. Gary, a renowned accident lawyer, claims to have won some of the largest settlements in US history (“in excess of $30 billion,” according to his website). The film depicts his celebrated case against the Canadian funeral home conglomerate Loewen Group, which would secure his reputation beyond that of an accident lawyer.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe, the owner of a chain of funeral homes in Mississippi, a business his family had run since the 1860s. In financial trouble and facing the loss of his license, he hesitantly approaches Raymond Loewen, chief executive of a vast Canadian funeral conglomerate, for help. On Loewen’s yacht, with just a signature and a handshake, the two agree to uncertain terms that would consolidate O’Keefe’s properties but not his insurance agencies. Loewen stalls moving forward for months. Recognizing he is being intentionally put off  — so Loewen can alter the agreement — O’Keefe decides to sue for breach of contract. Pushed by some amusing coaxing by his law assistant Hal (Mamoudou Athie), Willie Gary (Jamie Foxx) is convinced to take the case. A great Black lawyer, it is reasoned, stands a better chance with a Mississippi jury than a white lawyer. Battling Loewen’s team of contract law specialists is a daunting challenge for a man with no experience in that field. Cary then stuns his client by asking for a 400-million-dollar settlement against the firm. Leowen counters by hiring Mame Downes (Jurnee Smollett), a Black female lawyer with vast experience. The race card has been trumped.

Director Maggie Betts has much to keep in check– a courtroom drama and an exposé of corporate greed and racial politics in Mississippi. The solid cast keeps the story grounded. Jones looks appropriately worn for a man who has put the future of his family business in the hands of a Black team of exuberant lawyers before a Mississippi jury. Jones’s muted acting contrasts with Foxx’s silver-tongued courtroom rhetoric, which explodes onscreen. Smollett brings decades of acting experience to the role of the self-assured lawyer for the defense whose beauty, calm, and demonstrable skill shake Gary’s confidence. Alan Ruck is O’Keefe’s leading lawyer, Mike Allred, whose Southern family goes back decades. As with his role as the iconic son Conner Roy in Succession, Allred is forced to play second fiddle, in this case, to a fiery Black man. His sublimated resentment gives the story a chance to highlight profound issues of race in Southern culture in ways that could affect the trial’s outcome. Athie’s Hal is a young, up-and-coming Black lawyer and assistant to Mike Allred. Though much of the story hinges on this character, others are surprised that Hal is a crucial lawyer in the case. This mistrust may be due to his youth or the fact that he is Black, which  touches on misconceptions about Black achievement. Athie’s acting is solid and understated, which makes us root for him all the more.

The script proffers characters as representations of specific issues ranging from race and power to gender. That slotting gives the narrative a slightly contrived quality, though the ending is emotionally satisfying: Gary’s courtroom diatribes are directed at a highly credible villain. Enter the always-reliable Bill Camp as Raymond Loewen, a powerhouse of evil and opportunism. The figure’s disdainful glare makes him a satisfying whipping boy for racism, privilege, white power, corporate greed, and emotional apathy.

Dramas with themes neatly put forth can have a problem with credibility. The award-winning Green Book (2018) was an example of this. But in The Burial, Jamie Foxx’s delivery of Cary’s brilliant monologues clear away any accusations of condescending melodrama. After all, Cary is a preacher as well as a lawyer who has become known for fighting the system and triumphing. Foxx does right by the man’s walloping eloquence.

The narrative is so remarkable that the feature may raise curiosity about the facts. The 1999 New Yorker story “The Burial,” by Jonathan Harr, is the source for the screenplay. In an excellent 60 Minutes profile of Willie Gary, the lawyer had this to say about his combative courtroom style: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

Tim Jackson was an assistant professor of Digital Film and Video for 20 years. His music career in Boston began in the 1970s and includes some 20 groups, recordings, national and international tours, and contributions to film soundtracks. He studied theater and English as an undergraduate, and has also worked helter skelter as an actor and member of SAG and AFTRA since the 1980s. He has directed three feature documentaries: Chaos and Order: Making American Theater about the American Repertory Theater; Radical Jesters, which profiles the practices of 11 interventionist artists and agit-prop performance groups; When Things Go Wrong: The Robin Lane Story. And two short films: Joan Walsh Anglund: Life in Story and Poem and The American Gurner. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics. You can read more of his work on his blog.