Directed by: Michael Showalter
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cherry Jones, Sam Jaeger
After watching The Eyes of Tammy Faye, I felt I knew only slightly more (on a superficial level) about Tammy Faye Bakker (later Messner) than I did previously. Who is behind the caked-on (and in some cases permanent) makeup of Tammy Faye? You won't know by watching this film, and it's a shame because that spoils Jessica Chastain's fearless performance. Chastain brings the spunk and the energy, but to what end? The Eyes of Tammy Faye frustrates the viewer because it hints when it should explain and tries so hard to vindicate its subject that it feels as if plenty of stones went unturned in its attempts to explore her.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye begins in 1950's Minnesota, where Tammy Faye longs to sing in her church where her mother (Jones) plays the piano. Tammy Faye is forced to stay home during church because she is illegitimate, or a product of her mother's first marriage which ended in divorce. I wasn't quite sure. Soon Tammy Faye is in bible college where she meets Jim Bakker (Garfield), who defends wealth in his class sermons. The poor Tammy Faye is smitten by the smooth, cheerful Jim Bakker who early on demonstrates shady tendencies. They marry, move into Tammy Faye's mother's home, and plan their next move to make it big while spreading the good word.
Jim and Tammy Faye travel from town to town putting on Christian puppet shows. They fall into the Christian Broadcast Network run by Pat Robertson where Jim becomes the first host of The 700 Club while Tammy Faye stays home pregnant and with the puppets put away permanently. Tammy Faye is bored, and longs for she and Jim to break away from Robertson (and soon Jerry Falwell, Sr.) and form their own network. Within a few years, they launch the PTL (Praise The Lord) Club which grows exponentially in viewership and donations. The Bakkers are soon ostentatiously wealthy with grandiose plans to open a theme park and other offshoots of PTL. Things are not as they seem. Bakker is hounded by creditors, is accused of embezzlement and fraud in the media, and engages in sales of "partnerships" to investors who outwardly ask how many partnerships are for sale.
How much did Tammy Faye know of her husband's dealings? Did she even want to know? The household isn't exactly a happy one. Jim goes for months on end without having sex with his wife. There are hints of Jim's infidelity with his male assistant while he acts vengeful and spiteful when Tammy Faye begins a brief something or other with her record producer. I suppose it is an affair, but the zenith of their joy occurs when the eight-months-pregnant Tammy Faye has sex with him with their clothes on before her water breaks.
The famed scandal which turned Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye into household names and late-night talk show punchlines soon comes into focus, but the movie only glosses over the headlines. We find we could learn more by reading the Wikipedia article. Tammy Faye Bakker was indeed showy, flashy, and lived lavishly, but she also had compassion for gays and those suffering from AIDS, which ran against the agendas of the Jerry Falwells of the world. Tammy Faye's empathetic interview with an HIV-positive man was unheard of in the Christian world, who like Ronald Reagan didn't mention the word AIDS on television until the epidemic was well underway. The interview is the movie's emotional highlight, showcasing what made Tammy Faye unique in this world and a path the movie could've taken if it were interested in doing so.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is content to be a glossy biopic showing the rise, fall, and comeback of its subject. Did you know Tammy Faye soon remarried one of the PTL investors who himself went to prison on fraud convictions? Or she soon co-hosted a talk show for many years with Jm J. Bullock before her death from cancer in 2007? You wouldn't by watching this film, which is only satisfied by presenting us with a Tammy Faye singing comeback at Oral Roberts University circa 1995 which rings totally false. We have a movie which is neither fish nor fowl. It teases a look inside the life of a controversial figure while sidestepping the controversy and is so intent on painting Tammy Faye as a hero that it gives itself no wiggle from the corner into which it shoehorned itself.
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