Where I Watched it: Amazon

English Audio Description? Yes

Jamie Foxx has had a year. luckily for him, he seems to be coming out the other side, and he’s doing so with a strong performance in what should be Oscar bait. Oddly enough, it was his performance in They Cloned Tyrone that recently earned him a Gotham nomination, not the burial, adding to my idea that no one has watched this movie.

Based on the true story of a small funeral home operator (Tommy Lee Jones), who gets the run around from a corporation looking to buy out funeral homes across the country, knowing that if he goes bankrupt they can steal the homes at a bargain price, and the legal battle that ensues over the lack of action. Jamie Foxx plays a flashy Florida personal injury lawyer who is sought out since the jury is assumed to be predominantly black in this specific county, and he’s never lost.

It moves and feels like a John Grisham novel, even introducing a strong opposition to Foxx in the form of a hired gun (Jurnee Smollett), who sweeps in to defend the corporation, thus neutralizing Foxx’s racial benefit. She knows, as he does, that they were both hired not just because they are great, but because they are black, and they use that to fuel them. However, Foxx is on the side of redemptive righteousness and his character is the one who has the arc that puts him on a journey toward ending this film a different person than when he began. After he uncovers some dark secrets, he uses that to fuel his need to beat the evil billionaire at his rigged game.

Certainly there are choices in the film I would have done differently, but one of them I would have certainly kept is Jamie Foxx, who is on fire the whole film. Not only does he have the pronounced bravado to carry out the courtroom scenes as needed, but he has the dramatic range to connect on the human level, once it is realized that he has a human level. Foxx should be in this competitive Oscar race, but I think Amazon just doesn’t know how good he really is. He’s also backed by a rather terrific Tommy Lee Jones (and a surprisingly welcome Pamela Reed), both who add so much to the film as a simple older couple who have devoted their lives to their family, their family business, and the area where they live and the people who live there. Smollett is strong, but Foxx is just so dominant in the courtroom scenes, it’s almost impossible to notice her. He commands so much attention at all times.

I disagree with some structural choices, but I also want to keep this spoiler free. i hinted that Foxx finds out something, and it seems like we are building to that something, but then we back off and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

As far as the audio description goes, it’s mostly a courtroom drama, much like the recently reviewed Caine Mutiny Court Marshal. Courtroom scenes often sit, with most of the focus being on the dialogue, and not so much on movement, or any other visual elements. These scenes can be punctuated by the audio description by focusing on the little choices the actors make, and unlike the Caine Mutiny, The burial does spend about half the film outside of a courtroom, allowing us to see how the sausage gets made. These moments allow the audio description a bigger chance to shine, as the locations vary, and the difference in day and time allow for wardrobe changes for a flashy dresser like Foxx’s hot shot lawyer.

If you’ve ever been a fan of Jamie Foxx, or still are, you owe it to yourself to check this out. If you consider yourself still a fan, your fan card is revoked until you check out The Burial. Foxx had a terrific 2023 on screen, and it’s sad to think he might not get recognized for any of it.

Final Grade: B+