“The Burial” is loosely based on a true story, which was chronicled by Jonathan Harr in The New Yorker in 1999.
Betts focuses her lens on Foxx’s character, Willie E. Gary, a self-made success in personal injury law, who has never lost a case and doesn’t plan to. Jeremiah’s case is a contract one but a young associate played by the always appealing Mamoudou Athie convinces him that he’s going to need a lead counsel who is Black if they’re going to have a chance. The trial has been set for a poor, largely Black area, and Jeremiah’s longtime lawyer, Mike Allred , is an obvious racist.
When Willie does finally agree to go out of his comfort zone and take on a different kind of case , there is a steep and humbling learning curve and a formidable opponent in Jurnee Smollett’s Ivy League-educated lawyer representing the Loewen Group. Betts shares a screenwriting credit with Doug Wright, the Pulitzer and Tony-winning playwright, who has been with the project for years, with Alexander Payne once attached to direct. Betts was coming off a promising, but small, debut — the religious drama “Novitiate,” with Margaret Qualley and Melissa Leo. “The Burial” too is assured and straightforward, and faces questions about race and privilege and inequality head on.
Smollett’s Mame is the big invention of the movie, which doesn’t grate the way it usually does when screenwriters add a fictional, exceptional woman to diversify a too-male story. Mame is not a one note character — she is brilliant and accomplished but also keenly aware that she can’t stumble, falter or lose her cool the way her male counterparts can.
But this show belongs to Foxx, and it’s a fun feast to see him grandstand and doubt himself and charm all kinds of jurors and make us feel empathetic for a guy who is himself ostentatiously wealthy, no matter if it was easy for the actor or not.Dear Abby: This family constantly breaks the rules of our potluckAsk Amy: I’m hurt that they’re going to the wedding after what the groom’s mom did to meHarriette Cole: It seems like my co-workers are avoiding me.
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