Film Review: THE BURIAL

Spoiler alert: There's no burial in The Burial, now streaming on Amazon Prime .... just in case you start wondering. Instead, there is a long courtroom drama -- the film runs just over two hours -- about a lawsuit stemming from a contract dispute between a small-town funeral home director and a large, evil conglomerate of nationwide funeral homes. (They both also sell burial insurance, hence the title.)

But what this film really is is a tour de force by Jamie Foxx. My husband thinks tour de force is hackneyed and pretentious and suggests I just say he was "amazing" instead. But I will stick to my guns and risk sounding pretentious because his performance is so powerful. And I don't even particularly like the guy, or I didn't until this movie. Now I want to have a Jamie Foxx filmfest at home.

I won't tell the whole story; why ruin it? But there are some things you should know beforehand:

1. Tommy Lee Jones, an actor I have long adored in every movie he's ever been in, looks about 100 years old in this one, but he's supposed to be 75. (He is really 77.) His face looks like a leather catcher's mitt and his nose appears about to fall off. (Perhaps the make-up artists were on strike when this was made?) Still he delivers his character perfectly: a shy and reserved funeral parlor director, highly principled, father of 13 and grandfather of 24. Oh, and he's white.

2. Jamie Foxx is a black, snazzy, in-your-face lawyer who hasn't lost a case in 12 years and emulates Johnnie Cochran (of O.J. fame). He and Tommy have a bromance wherein black and white earn mutual respect, ebony and ivory and all that, like we've seen before in many other movies. But Jamie Foxx is in this one, and he makes it all seem brand new.

It's worth mentioning that while Foxx turns in an Oscar-worthy performance, the script, and so the movie, is at times sort of hackneyed. It's saved from being too hackneyed by the fact that it's a true story. And it's funny, too. You'll want to watch it twice.