Culture & Arts

by Bekah McCallum
Post Date:
October 5, 2023 Issue Date:
October 21, 2023

The Burial

Name: WORLD
Price range: $

MOVIE | A white small-business owner forms an unlikely friendship with his black lawyer in a face-off with corporate bullies

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➤Rated R
➤Prime Video

True story: in the late 1990s, struggling businessman Jeremiah O’Keefe agreed to sell three of his Mississippi funeral parlors to Raymond Loewen, owner of an international funeral home conglomerate. Loewen then purchased another parlor in Jackson. The Jackson owner had pledged to sell O’Keefe’s funeral insurance. But when he started using another insurance broker, O’Keefe sued Loewen, and the case was filed in Hinds County, Miss., a rural area with a predominantly black population.

Based on this true story, The Burial is a David and Goliath tale in which a white small-business owner takes on corporate bullies with the help of his black lawyer. The movie begins by introducing O’Keefe’s lead attorney Willie Gary (Jamie Foxx), a flashy, personal injury lawyer who wears $3,000 suits and owns a private jet. Gary has the electric charisma of a Pentecostal preacher and seems confident he can persuade the black judge and jury. O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) originally sought $8 million in restitution, but once Gary comes on the team, he demands $100 million from the Loewen Group.

The Burial offers a refreshing look at race relations, telling a story that wrestles with the issue even though the plot doesn’t hinge on it. Characters don’t fall into typical Hollywood stereotypes. Gary, the self-made son of sugar-cane farmers, initially refuses to work with O’Keefe because he is white. Later, a more humble Gary defends the grandson of a KKK member: “You cannot hold someone responsible for the mistakes of their ancestors.”

The film has some heavy language that seems excessive, but Jones and Foxx deliver authentic performances. Their characters illustrate how common grace enables unlikely friendships.