OVP: The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Film: The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Stars: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio, Fredric Lehne, Sam Jaeger

Director: Michael Showalter

Oscar History: 2 nominations/2 wins (Best Actress-Jessica Chastain*, Makeup & Hairstyling*)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Fame is a strange beast, and it's also a weird conundrum when taken in conjunction with something that people are not typically famous for.  In modern society, we think of famous figures associated largely with their jobs-movie stars, politicians, athletes...these are the professions we are used to someone being famous for.  But during the 1970's & 80's, America's conservative moment allowed for a different type of celebrity: the televangelist.  It's hard to grasp today, but people like Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker were a BIG deal in the United States.  At the height of their fame, they had 20 million people tuning in for their show, and had a theme park that rivaled Disneyland in terms of annual visitors.  Their fall was big news, across every country in America, and they were well-known enough that they were played by Phil Hartman & Jan Hooks on Saturday Night Live.  Today, they aren't well-remembered...the scandal was part of that, but in the same way we don't have a great idea of what opera superstars or painting superstars are, the televangelist movement has been relegated to small potatoes in terms of celebrity cache, and so I was curious when I saw The Eyes of Tammy Faye-how would the movie get across the seismic impact they briefly had on American culture?  What I found was a film that got that message across, but in doing so glossed over huge swaths of their story to the detriment of the film at-large.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie follows the lives of Jim (Garfield) and Tammy Faye Bakker (Chastain) from their humble beginnings in rural Minnesota to their eventual movement to the televangelist circuit, becoming at one point the largest stars in its orbit (though as the film points out, never the largest power-brokers).  They both seem to have love at the center of their ministries, but while Jim is more out to prove himself & make a fortune for himself, Tammy Faye seems to struggle with the concept of anything other than love.  Yes, she sings & enjoys the fame, but she also genuinely cannot jive with some of the hate (particularly for AIDS patients and gay people) that people like Jerry Falwell (D'Onofrio) are intent on taking down as part of their movement.  When the Bakkers are found out for both financial scandal (they embezzled mountains of money that was pledged to projects for PTL, their network) and sex scandal (both Bakkers had affairs, Jim purportedly homosexual ones, though I'll be honest I feel like the screenwriters totally glossed over the rape allegations levied at Jim by Jessica Hahn), we see their fall from grace, divorce, & what it was like for Tammy Faye specifically in the years after when she went from one of the country's most recognizable figures to basically a joke.

The film itself is a conundrum, because it does address Tammy Faye herself really well.  Chastain is saddled with a particularly difficult part.  Tammy Faye as written (and based on all accounts, Tammy Faye in real life), was kind of the embodiment of a ridiculous person, but one so genuine you couldn't help but love her.  Chastain does that balance well-she makes sure that we understand that Tammy Faye isn't a fool, but she is someone who truly loves the people around her & wants the best for everyone.  In a cynical world, she is a woman of true, unadulterated faith in her fellow man (and her lord).  This can read as cloying, but Chastain pushes through that need & just makes her feel authentic.  It's a very good performance from an actress making something of a comeback in 2021.

The problem is that the rest of the film can't keep up this energy.  This is particularly an issue for Garfield's Jim.  Garfield is the right fit for a man at odds with his own sexuality & who is trying to prove himself on multiple fronts-he's the kind of actor who can let his inner-world spring forth, even when he doesn't want it to.  But the director doesn't know how to engage with Jim's sexuality (which is never properly confirmed even if it's all-but-alluded-to), and how the man himself deals with it.  And unlike Tammy Faye, we don't understand where the line between Jim's true faith & where he's pretending is drawn.  Combine the cartoonish villainy of Jerry Falwell (which I'll forgive to a degree since it's probably true-to-life for the hateful televangelist) and the bizarre handling of Ron Messner (who is a significant character in the film, yet the picture itself never talks about how he eventually marries Tammy Faye), and you have a movie that doesn't quite work, even if Chastain is doing her darndest to sell it.