“What happened to you, man? Now you can’t remember your lines and you look old!”
“Oh, go away, Tommy!”
“My name’s not Tommy!”
“Well, it’s not mine, either! I’m Archibald Leach!”
The Burial (2023) is a retelling of the contract law litigation of Jeremiah O’Keefe vs. The Loewen Group in which O’Keefe accused Loewen of offering a buyout of certain O’Keefe funeral service properties, with no intention of actually fulfilling the contract. O’Keefe would be frozen, as it were, into inaction while awaiting money that would never come.
This drama, while a more or less conventional Hollywood treatment, is still effective, even if the last minute discoveries and actions are predictable. The actors are quite good at making a somewhat tired treatment affecting, and so if you choose to watch The Burial, I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
It is, in essence, a story of how one of the top 1% preyed on the poor sector of society, via its unavoidable needs, through misrepresentation, and how a middle class member who helped serve the poor, and believed in the original promise of America, fought back with the sharpest tools he could find: a lawyer who grew up as a member of the poor, and never forgot it.
But it does help that this is based on a real case and shows that the wheels of justice, as slow as they may be, can grind to a proper conclusion. For another treatment of the case, former funeral director Caitlyn Doughty did a half hour documentary.
Within its limitations, it’s quite good, even if it occasionally feels like it’s good for you. Enjoy – and learn.
