''Just Buried'' is a Canadian
dark comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
film written and directed by
Chaz Thorne
Chaz Thorne (born 1975 in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian actor and television and film director. He graduated from the National Theatre School in 1996. He has appeared on stages across Canada as well as in numerous film and television pro ...
. Released in 2007, the film stars
Jay Baruchel
Jonathan Adam Saunders Baruchel (; born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He is known for his voice role as Hiccup Haddock in the ''How to Train Your Dragon'' franchise, and for his roles in comedy movies ...
and
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979) is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut in the film ''Dallas Doll'' (1994), and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s. She obtained her first leading film role i ...
among several other actors.
Plot
Grocery delivery boy Oliver Whynacht and his brother Jackie go on for what they expect to be a quick in-and-out return visit to their hometown in Nova Scotia for their estranged father's funeral. So, Oliver is surprised to find out when the will is executed that he has inherited his father's whole estate, which includes a funeral home. His widow and the embalmer Roberta Knickel are also taken aback by the news.
Shortly after his arrival, Oliver is told by Henry the handyman that the funeral home is facing bankruptcy, as his father is the first 'customer' they've had in over a year. This is mostly due to sleaze-ball Wayne Snarr opening a rival funeral home in town and, through greasy marketing techniques, poaching all the 'clients' from the retirement home which had been a goldmine for Oliver's father.
A stressed Oliver goes out for a night of drinking with Roberta after which, although he feels he's too drunk to drive, she insists "everyone around here does it". So, they jump into the pickup and stick to secondary roads. Initially everything is fine, they start to click, he takes his eyes off the road for a moment and commits manslaughter by hitting and killing a passing Swiss night hiker with the truck.
Roberta unhesitatingly helps Oliver to cover up the crime, as she is also the local coroner in addition to being the funeral home's embalmer. She and Oliver stage the body so that it appears like an accident. This becomes Oliver's first paying customer.
Oliver's first 'customer' turned out to be wealthy, so his first funeral as director is a success. This engenders the duo to kill again, but intentionally. The scheming Roberta even goads Oliver into eliminating their competition.
Suspicion is raised as the two fight to stay out of jail and stage "accidents" all over town. Ironically, Roberta's father turns out to be the local sheriff.
Due to their mutual partnership Oliver and Roberta begin to fall in love despite Oliver's seductive stepmother Luanne. After Roberta reveals that she is pregnant, the two get married. Shortly afterwards, the truth comes out that Roberta murdered his father to lure Oliver back into town.
It is revealed that Roberta was using Oliver to regain ownership of the funeral home, which originally had belonged to her mother. The film concludes as Roberta kills Oliver and gains possession of the funeral home.
Cast
*
Jay Baruchel
Jonathan Adam Saunders Baruchel (; born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He is known for his voice role as Hiccup Haddock in the ''How to Train Your Dragon'' franchise, and for his roles in comedy movies ...
as Oliver Whynacht
*
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979) is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut in the film ''Dallas Doll'' (1994), and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s. She obtained her first leading film role i ...
as Roberta Knickel
*
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
as Henry Sanipass
*
Nigel Bennett
Nigel Bennett (born 19 November 1949) is a British-Canadian actor, director, and writer who has been based in Canada since 1986. He is best known for playing the vampire patriarch Lucien LaCroix in the TV series ''Forever Knight'', for which h ...
as Chief Knickle
*
Sergio Di Zio
Sergio Di Zio is a Canadian actor. He starred in the television series '' Flashpoint'' as Michelangelo "Spike" Scarlatti until the show concluded on December 13, 2012. His other works include '' The Lookout'', ''Cinderella Man'', '' Senior Trip ...
as Jackie Whynacht
*
Reagan Pasternak
Reagan Jae Pasternak (born March 8, 1977) is a Canadian actress known for her role as Julianne in the TV series ''Being Erica''.
Biography
Pasternak was born in Toronto, Ontario. She is the youngest of four. She has two older sisters and an olde ...
as Luanne
*
Thomas Gibson
Thomas Ellis Gibson (born July 3, 1962) is an American actor and director. He is best known for his television roles as Daniel Nyland on ''Chicago Hope'' (1994–1997), Greg Montgomery on ''Dharma & Greg'' (1997–2002) and Aaron Hotchner on ''C ...
as Charlie Richmond
*
Brian Downey as Pickles
*Slavko Negulic as Armin Imholz
*
Jeremy Akerman
Jeremy Bernard Akerman (born May 28, 1942) is a former Canadian politician, writer and actor and a former leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party.
__TOC__
Early life
Akerman was born in Alvechurch, Worcesteshire, United Kingdom. He was ...
as Rollie Whynacht
*Christopher Shore as Wayne Snarr
*Michael Pellerin as Sam the Wrecker
Awards
''Just Buried'' has been nominated for, and won two awards; in 2007,
Chaz Thorne
Chaz Thorne (born 1975 in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian actor and television and film director. He graduated from the National Theatre School in 1996. He has appeared on stages across Canada as well as in numerous film and television pro ...
won the Atlantic Canadian Award for Best Director at the
Atlantic Film Festival
FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival (known as The Atlantic International Film Festival until 2017) is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. FIN is the largest Canadian film festival eas ...
. In 2008, Chaz Thorne won another award for his work on the film. The Jury Award for Best of the Fest was given to Thorne at the Santa Cruz Film Festival.
Production & Release
''Just Buried'' was filmed in locations including
Halifax,
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
, Nova Scotia, Canada. The production designer for the film is William Flemming. Set decoration for the whole movie was done by Darlene Lewis. Costumes for the film were designed by Kate Rose who coordinated with key makeup artist Betty Belmore.
The film was initially released at the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
on September 9, 2007. The Canada wide release of the film came a less than a year later on July 25, 2008. The film was also released in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
on October 3, 2008.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics and users. , the film holds a 33% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on nine reviews with an average rating of 4.67/10.
Andrew Barker of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called the film "Bloody and irredeemably misanthropic" stating that the film "has enough charm to make for a sporadically enjoyable if wildly uneven entry in the growing body of cheeky corpse comedies." This review also calls attention to several actor's performances in the film including those of
Jay Baruchel
Jonathan Adam Saunders Baruchel (; born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He is known for his voice role as Hiccup Haddock in the ''How to Train Your Dragon'' franchise, and for his roles in comedy movies ...
whom he found misplayed the role. Barker states that the two standout performances were that of
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
who played Henry Sanipass, and Christopher Shore who played Wayne Snarr.
References
External links
*
* {{Rotten Tomatoes, just_buried
''Just Buried'' at
''Tribute''
2007 films
2007 black comedy films
Canadian black comedy films
English-language Canadian films
Films about death
Funeral homes in fiction
2007 directorial debut films
2007 comedy films
2000s English-language films
2000s Canadian films