The Burial 2023

In 1995, a financially troubled funeral home owner Jeremiah O’Keefe, Tommy Lee Jones, is forced to sell parts of his business to meet the demands of the Mississippi State Insurance Commission after money vanishes in a Ponzi scheme run by a business associate. He strikes a deal with Raymond Loewen of the Loewen Group to buy three funeral homes, on the strict condition that funeral insurance not be sold to settle the arrangement. Four months pass and Loewen still delays payment, never honoring the oral agreement about not selling funeral insurance.

His young lawyer Hal Dockins [Mamoudou Athie] suggests Loewen is deliberately trying to push O’Keefe into bankruptcy to seize the entire business at a discount. Enraged, O’Keefe hires Willie E. Gary, a flashy Florida personal injury lawyer [Jamie Foxx], convinced that his white contract lawyer will struggle to win a black jury. Gary pushes for a potential settlement as high as $100 million and even remortgages his own home to fund the fight. In response, Loewen assembles a black attorney team led by Mame Downes [Jurnee Smollett], hoping to counter Gary’s bold strategy.

In court, Downes questions O’Keefe’s character and underscores his financial troubles stemming from dealings with a now-convicted felon. Feeling the pressure, O’Keefe replaces Gary with Mike Allred [Alan Ruck] as lead attorney. Dockins presents a credible witness who accuses Loewen of overcharging minority communities, while Downes scrutinizes Allred and reveals that his grandfather was a Ku Klux Klan member. When Gary stands up for Allred, the black legal team walks out in protest, convinced the defense is compromised and could not win under that leadership.

Just as O’Keefe contemplates dropping the case, Dockins uncovers a link to the National Baptist Church, showing that the Loewen Group exploited church members to push overpriced packages. Confronted with this evidence and Loewen’s lack of remorse, the jury sides with O’Keefe, awarding him $500 million in damages—$100 million in compensatory damages and $400 million in punitive damages. Two years later, Ray Loewen is fired and the company goes into bankruptcy. After the closing credits, Willie E. Gary makes a cameo appearance in person.