‘The Burial’: Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx in a Sweet Story of Friendship, Funerals and Triumph

Tommy Lee Jones as Jeremiah O’Keefe, and Jamie Foxx as Willie Gary, in The Burial. Photo: Skip Bolen © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

One might not expect a movie about a funeral director and a lawsuit would yield either comedy or camaraderie. But you can find both in The Burial.

What’s The Burial About?

In select theaters on Oct. 6, then landing on Amazon Prime on Oct. 13, The Burial, directed and co-written (with Doug Wright) by Maggie Betts, is based on a factual 1999 story in The New Yorker.

Set in the mid-1990s (about the same time as the O.J. Simpson trial, which is mentioned), The Burial stars Jamie Foxx as flamboyant Florida personal-injury lawyer Willie E. Gary (which kept giving me flashbacks to a much younger Foxx as equally flamboyant quarterback Willie Beamen in the 1999 football drama Any Given Sunday).

His client is 75-year-old Jeremiah “Jerry” O’Keefe (Jones), a decorated WWII pilot and the owner of a string of funeral homes (and a burial-insurance business) in Biloxi, Mississippi. A long-married father of 13 and grandfather of many more, Jerry has run into financial and regulatory troubles.

He agrees to sell some of his funeral homes to Canadian-based multinational conglomerate The Loewen Group, run by very wealthy Ray Loewen (Bill Camp).

But when the handshake deal lingers in limbo, Jerry concludes that Loewen is just waiting for him to go bankrupt, so that he can snatch up the funeral homes at fire-sale prices. So, against the odds, Jerry decides to take Loewen to court.

What Does Race Have to Do With It?

As Jerry’s case is going to be tried in a majority Black county, Hank (Mamoudou Athie), a young, Black associate attorney of Jerry’s longtime lawyer (Alan Ruck), suggests hiring Willie — who hasn’t lost a case in many years.

It requires some convincing to get Willie to take the case, and even more convincing to meld the two legal teams.

Things get more complicated when Loewen hires brilliant corporate litigator Mame Downes (Jurnee Smollett), who arrives with a heavyweight team of other Black attorneys.

Although O’Keefe’s contract-law case has nothing in particular to do with race, the subject is all around these Southern characters. Eventually, thanks to Hank’s diligence, racial and economic inequality factor into the courtroom battle in a surprising way.

The Burial Is a Bit of a Bromance

The heart of this story isn’t necessarily family, since, other than the wives, we don’t meet either Jerry’s or Willie’s immediate families, aside from one scene with Willie’s mother. Rather, it’s about the close friendship and respect that grows between lawyer and client.

The two men have very different styles and personalities, but they’re both husbands who love their wives — which is wonderful to see on screen — and care about doing the right thing.

Jones pulls out his signature brand of stoicism, mixed with patient but resolute endurance. Foxx is at his best, imbuing Willie’s showbiz antics with intelligence and warmth.

It’s an old-fashioned courtroom drama, the kind they don’t make nearly enough of anymore. I went in with zero expectations and walked out smiling.

There Is Some Stealth Catholicism

By the way, the O’Keefe family is Catholic. The film opens with Willie addressing a Black church congregation, but we don’t see the O’Keefes at Mass.

The only hint of Catholicism (aside from the 13 children) is a Virgin Mary statue in the couple’s bedroom (there’s also a Cross on the wall, but I couldn’t tell if it was a plain one or a Crucifix).

I did find Jerry’s obituary, which says he went to St. Alphonsus Elementary School and later Sacred Heart Academy in Biloxi. He graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans, and his funeral was held at the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral Parish in Biloxi.

That’s pretty darn Catholic. Might have been nice if he or his wife had done the Sign of the Cross or something, but, hey, Mary was there.

The Burial is rated R for language, but there’s no violence or sexual content. Recommended for older teens and up.