The Burial

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Burial is a biopic following a personal injury lawyer, Willie Gary, fighting the case of funeral home owner, Jerry O'Keefe, against the Loewen group. This functions on the surface as a case of the small business owner against the funeral proceedings juggernaut of big business, a case that defied the odds and led to a tremendous amount of success for those poorly affected by the Loewen Group. This is a film that really works best when it sits with the dramatic persona of Willie Gary, showcasing his life and very wild state of presentation. I found this to be a protagonist who was very arresting to watch, who drove energy into the narrative. Even if a courtroom scene moment felt a little fabricated, you would be pulled right in by the arresting nature of this attorney. I found the steady personal connection Gary formed with the case to be really gripping and the development of how the case turned so drastically in the favour of the protagonists was very interesting as well. There is also a really engaging rivalry at the heart of this feature between Willie Gary and defendant attorney, Mame Downes.

 

This film has a soundtrack that really serves the impact of elevating how we see Willie Gary. I also really enjoyed the track 'Feels Good' by Tony! Toni! Toné! and the emotional connection it crafted between our two leads: Willie and Jerry.

 

Jurnee Smollett, who played Mame Downes, is one of the few performances in this feature that really comes close to giving Foxx a run for his money; Smollett is a dominating presence in the courtroom scenes and is unrelenting throughout. Alan Ruck, who played Mike Allred, is fascinating as this figure who appears charming but is clearly deeply prejudiced against African-Americans; Ruck portraying his character's breakdown on stand and deep sadness at having to step away from the case are incredible scenes. Mamoudou Athie, who played Hal Dockins, is such a quietly strong and likeable individual from the moment he comes onscreen; Athie is a quietly intelligent presence who makes the scenes in which his character uncovers new info extremely thrilling. Bill Camp, who played Ray Loewen, is so interesting when he finds a character performance he can really run with; here Camp brings this sense of vile greed right to the forefront of his antagonist. Amanda Warren, who played Gloria Gary, is so bubbly and filled with joy; I was entirely enchanted with her and thought her and Foxx shared incredible chemistry with one another. Dorian Missick, who played Reggie Douglas, may not have been in this film long but he sure left his mark; Missick and Fox share some great back and forth in the scene we are introduced to Gary and it kicks the film off incredibly well.

 

However, the best performance came from Jamie Foxx, who played Willie Gary. This is a feature that could have been an indie biopic ranging right through to something vying for awards season distinction; I'm not sure it'll be much more than streaming housed feature. However, what makes this film watching in the face of a biopic formula we've seen before is Foxx's performance. This is a man who may not have picked stellar films over the past year or two, but has continued to impress with exceptional commitment to his craft. He comes at this film with incredible gravitas; there is no one in this feature who really has a hope of measuring up to his energy in a given scene. When Foxx is playing in the courtroom scenes he can shift from plaful charisma to a man on the attack. I also liked the backroom conflict around case leadership, particularly how smugly that was played. Yet what I think gave this performance an edge was Foxx's capability to lend an emotional footnote to it; you really believed Gary moved from being dispassionate about the case to deeply and personally invested.

 

The struggle with biopics these days are making ones that stand out, particularly if the movie is a little guy vs. the corporate entity film. I found the pathway into this movie difficult at first, Willie is a lawyer carting around in a private jet with not much of anything to lose. I also thought that Jerry was really his own worst enemy and little more than a business owner who wasn't good at business, it was difficult to understand why I should care if he won his case beyond the fact he's a 'family man'. The journey this film goes on to bond Jerry and Willie doesn't really sell me much, it's not a bond that comes together naturally and feels a bit pieced together. But the major glaring issue with this film is how fictional it all feels. The great strength of a biopic is to adapt real life; it's not entirely real but it should trick the audience into believing it is real. This movie is riddled with moments that shatter the illusion of this being an authetic biopic; whether that's the first meeting between Willie and Mame or the long detour to look at unmarked slave mass graves. This film feels a lot of pressure to be a civil rights story, and it certainly is one, but it needed to take the time to detail and weave this in smoothly. The objective of the feature is rarely clear and often it's quite content to show off when it should really be informing the audience more or packing more of an emotional punch.

 

The cinematography is very simplistic and often framed in quite an ugly manner that neglects the layout of a scene; there are fleeting moments of creativity but they are few and far between. The editing could have been done by a high schooler, there are some monstrously bad cuts especially in the first act. While I loved the soundtrack for the feature I barely had a sense of the score, which really could have upped the tension of the feature. 

 

Tommy Lee Jones, who played Jeremiah O'Keefe, seems to be having fun across from Foxx but is clearly struggling to keep up; I found little reason to care for Jerry and Jones' range comes across as quite limited in this. Pamela Reed, who played Annette O'Keefe, often fades into the background throughout this feature; I really struggled to believe her and Jones' characters shared a bond as deeply emotional as marriage.

 

The Burial is a very entertaining and dramatic watch but it often breaks the illusion and feels a little bit closer to fiction than fact. I would give The Burial a 5.5/10.