Netflix Has An Unrated Comedy That Makes Funerals Funny

By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 minute ago

Normally, I’m perfectly okay when a Jay Baruchel vehicle gets tanked by critics because there’s something about the characters he portrays that irritates me to no end. After watching 2007’s Just Buried, I had a similar revelation about him that I recently had about Justin Long. Justin Long is often typecast as a jerk because he’s so good at playing that guy. Similarly, Jay Baruchel has an innate ability to play a hapless wiener who you just want to give a swirlie.

I know my thinking is wrong here because actors like Baruchel and Long get typecast in these roles precisely because they’re exceptionally good at them. The reason I don’t like their characters is because they’re not supposed to be likable. This isn’t an indictment of who they are as real people, but a celebration of the talent they bring to the table and how well it works when applied correctly.

Though Just Buried’s 33 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes would lead you to believe this isn’t one of Jay Baruchel’s finer hours, I’m going to respectfully disagree. It’s one of the few movies where he gets top billing (2013’s This is the End being the other one) that I’d actually recommend to anybody curious about what he has to offer.

A Deadly Inheritance

Jay Baruchel’s Oliver Whynacht (pronounced “why not”) is more charming in Just Buried than the critics would have you think. Summoned to a small town in Nova Scotia for his father Rollie’s (Jeremy Akerman) funeral, Oliver, a grocery store delivery boy with no real prospects on the horizon, is shocked to learn he’s inherited his entire estate, including the struggling funeral home Rollie owned and operated. What Oliver doesn’t realize is that the business is facing bankruptcy because rival owner Wayne Snarr (Christopher Shore) has been poaching all of his potential clients from the nearby retirement home.

Rollie’s widow, Roberta (Rose Byrne), who works as the embalmer, quickly befriends Oliver, and the two hit it off. Their budding friendship is tested when Oliver, who gets a nosebleed whenever he’s stressed, accidentally runs over a pedestrian after a couple of drinks at the bar. Terrified he’ll go to jail for vehicular manslaughter, Oliver learns that Roberta is not only a skilled embalmer, but also the town’s coroner and Police Chief Knickle’s (Nigel Bennett) daughter.

After staging the scene to look like the pedestrian suffered a fatal fall during one of his nightly walks, Roberta handles the autopsy, giving Oliver his first customer at the funeral home when the victim’s wealthy family comes to pay their respects. This creates a twofold problem. First, locals grow suspicious about the man’s death, meaning potential witnesses may need to be dealt with, something Roberta seemingly has no qualms about. Second, Roberta suggests sabotaging Wayne Snarr so they can get the funeral home’s books back in black once they’re the only game in town again.

The body count in Just Buried keeps climbing because Oliver and Roberta want to protect themselves, but they also realize they’ve stumbled onto a disturbingly effective business model. Dead people need funerals, funeral homes need dead people, and Roberta knows how to make people dead as if she’s been quietly planning something like this long before Oliver came into the picture. Oliver, whose nose starts bleeding whenever pressed by Chief Knickle, becomes the primary suspect in the string of deaths. Roberta, given her unique position in a small town where everybody knows everybody, remains calculating enough to stay one step ahead of the authorities.

Expert-Level Escalations 

What makes Just Buried far better than its reputation suggests is how perfectly Jay Baruchel is cast as Oliver Whynacht. Everything I dislike about Baruchel’s on-screen presence in films like 2010’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice translates perfectly here. Every time Oliver gets in trouble, I expect him to start huffing and puffing before blurting out “gee whiz,” or something equally irritating. In this film, that personality trait works because he’s not reluctantly embarking on a magical adventure, but instead spiraling through a steadily escalating situation that could land him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Rose Byrne’s portrayal of Roberta Knickle is equally commendable here. At first, she comes off as an eccentric yet helpful accomplice in the incident that kicks off the gruesome chain of events in Just Buried. As Oliver spends more time with her, it becomes clear she’s a low-key psychopath whose reach and influence over the community is far wider than anybody would ever expect. The result is a morbidly hilarious mystery thriller that’s sharper and funnier than it has any right to be.

Just Buried is currently streaming on Netflix.