I want to thank C. Liegh McInnis for commending The Burial — the new movie streaming now that’s based on true events in the 90s. The film tells how Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) — a white Mississippian with a legal team led by a black lawyer, Willie E. Gary (Jamie Foxx) — sued Loewen funeral company, a Northern corporation looking to establish monopoly control over the death-industry in parts of the American South. Along the way, one of O’Keefe’s lawyers, Halbert Dockins Jr. (Mamadou Athie), amped up his client’s case by zeroing in on the full ugly of Loewen’s deals with clergy who sold overpriced funeral packages to black churchgoers.
The movie opens with a scene that doesn’t really land until the film’s moved on. Lawyer Gary takes the pulpit (as a guest) one Sunday and muses about how church is home to black people — a sequence that hits different later as one takes in how the Loewen company corrupted the process of “homegoing.” The Burial subtly links the tale of Loewen’s scams with the never-ending history of financial crimes against black Americans — crimes that keep estranging them from the rest of the country (and each other).
The Burial‘s script-and-direction rarely break the rules of courtroom drama, but history hits again in a scene set in a down home landscape. Jamie Foxx thinks out loud about what lies beneath all those sculpted Confederate generals on horses. In his mind, they tread on lost burial grounds of numberless, unknown/unnamed slaves.
Foxx and all The Burial‘s actors seem at once fully present and aware of the past behind them. While it’s no longer rare to see a range of middle-class African Americans portrayed on screen, it’s still fun to see so many live black minds unburied. (The bulk of the lawyers on both sides of the case were black.) I was struck in particular by the tall, lean actor who plays young lawyer Dockins. He takes over the screen from the moment he strides into view, managing to seem gentle yet steely. (His length and light reminded me of a family member. So it was a trip to learn Athie is an African-America like the beloved in my head. Sorry if T.M.I.) Per C. Liegh McInnis (who’s in a position to know): “While Athie looks nothing like Attorney Dockins, his portrayal of him is uncanny.”
Tommy Lee Jones’s performance also stands out (quietly). Tommy Lee always has soul. This time around, he pulls off a lovely feat of exaltation — sticking a high note as he breezily sings along with Tony! Toni! Toné!’s “Feels Good” (which never sounded so sweet).
The Burial is a true “feel-good” movie. I grasp why you might retch at the concept, but check yourself and check out the flic.