Time: 126 Minutes
Cast:
Jamie Foxx as Willie E. Gary
Tommy Lee Jones as Jeremiah O’Keefe
Jurnee Smollett as Mame Downes
Alan Ruck as Mike Allred
Mamoudou Athie as Hal Dockins
Pamela Reed as Annette O’Keefe
Bill Camp as Raymond Loewen
Director: Maggie Betts

Willie E. Gary, an unconventional lawyer, helps Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe, a funeral home owner with financial troubles, save his family business from a corporate behemoth.

The Burial was an upcoming legal drama starring Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones which would be releasing on Amazon Prime. On the whole, its pretty good, if not great.

The Burial is a standard and familiar courtroom crowd pleaser based on a true story. It’s also about a working man facing down a corporate giant, classic underdog story. As such, it’s pretty safe and familiar movie, but its satisfying and enjoyable to watch nonetheless. It is well crafted, and is compelling and layered enough. The movie starts out with Tommy Lee Jones’s case which Jamie Foxx takes on, but then it becomes something more as the film progresses and more information is presented. It also attempts to dive into real world issues, especially as it shows a system which is rigged against the underprivileged. There’s also a fair amount of humour which works well. The courtroom scenes are where the movie is at its best, and it makes for some stand out scenes. There are certainly some script issues. Some of the characterisation can be a little thin, and the pacing is a little slow, you can feel it dragging in parts. It is a little long at around 2 hours and 10 minutes, and you do feel the runtime a little.

The movie definitely benefits from a really good cast. Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones are the highlights of the movie, giving some great performances, and having good rapport with each other. Foxx particularly delivers one of the best performances I’ve seen from him. The supporting cast including Jurnee Smollett, Mamoudou Athie, Alan Ruck, and Bill Camp also deliver in their parts.

Maggie Betts’s direction is very solid, it’s a well shot and edited movie. The scenes set inside the courtrooms are particularly great, especially with the cross examinations.

The Burial is a decent and enjoyable courtroom drama, benefitting from the great cast, especially Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones.