The Burial

The owner of a small Mississippi funeral home sues a large chain that broke their agreement. For a lawyer he hires a famous personal injury attorney who addresses a courtroom like a congregation. The film opens the case as a contract dispute, but as the hearings go on race and class surface underneath. The narrative delivers this not in a speech scene but spread across jury selection and witness testimony. Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx lead. It follows a real case tried in 1995, and the trial record is the basis of the script. Who it's for: those who like courtroom drama and films two actors carry between them. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a dry legal procedural; the film opens into comedy often.