THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE

Directing: B
Acting: B+
Writing: B-
Cinematography: B
Editing: B-
Makeup: B+

The Eyes of Tammy Faye is not garnering a lot of attention or box office receipts, and to be honest, it’s not all that much of a surprise. Even setting the quality of this film on its own terms aside, what possible relevance could Tammy Faye Bakker have to the current culture, easily forty years after the peak of her cultural cachet, and fourteen years after her death? Does anyone under the age of forty even remember her? I barely do, and even that’s only because of the famed cult documentary of the same name that was released in 2000, programmed as part of queer festivals, and focused far less on Jim Bakker and quite a bit more on her pointed support of the queer community—something I only learned from that documentary film, at the age of 24.

It may seem like a leap that this film brought to mind the recent Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. That film, also on its own terms, is no better or worse than The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but, crucially, it does far more easily justify its own existence. Aretha Franklin passed away far more recently (2018), her life’s work continues to have a profound impact on ongoing art and culture, and we can safely assume it will continue to for decades to come. None of these same things can be said of Tammy Faye Bakker, whose cultural influence at its peak was niche at best, and for the later years of her life she was unfortunately the largely unfair target of ridicule. This would have been due to her notoriously clownish makeup, the stereotype of her constantly crying, and just her general loopiness—which this current film suggests was largely due to prescription drug addictions.

The 2000 documentary set out to humanize her, and it did a pretty good job of it. This new, narrative film version of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, as directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick), clearly has the same intention. But, in 2021, how much does it even matter anymore? In 2000, Tammy Faye was still alive and vry much active; she was indeed an active participant in the filming process. What all this boils down to is, the current film is not just too little too late, but it is definitively redundant. You’d be far better off just seeking out. the original documentary—which, incidentally, is officially credited as the source material.

None of this is to say that this The Eyes of Tammy Faye is without any redeeming value, however. There’s always the unfortunate fact that more people are interested in narrative features than they are in documentary films—that documentary earned all of $1 million at the box office, after all, although the fact that the current film has earned all of $1.5 million 10 days into its run isn’t painting the greatest picture either. On the other hand, like it or not we are in the streaming era, and a fair number more people will will likely see it that way soon enough.

The best thing about this movie, actually, is the acting. Well, although Andrew Garfield has proved capable of greatness in many other parts, he is merely serviceable here as Jim Bakker, donning his own slightly distracting facial prosthetics and varied and evolving hairstyles through the many years this movie covers. Jessica Chastain, however, is legitimately impressive as Tammy Faye, somehow transcending the truly ridiculous amount of makeup and prosthetics. In fact she disappears into this part in a way she arguably never has before, achieving the aforementioned goal of humanizing the woman she plays.

It could even be argued she's too good at it. There are side-by-side stills at the end of the film, showing the actors playing their parts next to the real people they played. It's only when Chastain is seen up next to the real Tammy Faye that it's a little jarring. After sitting through that entire 126-minute movie, it becomes clear that Chastain actually dialed it down: Tammy Faye Bakker, to put it as sensitively as I can, was a truly nutty lady.

And the story we are privy to here, details the rise of the Bakkers as televangelists, their public marital problems, and their deep-dive fall from grace when Jim Bakker was indicted on charges of fraud, thereafter even serving a prison sentence. There are even allusions to secret gay affairs on the part of Jim, although the movie us never really straightforward about them. All we know, based on this movie anyway, is that Tammy Faye was along for the ride, largely oblivious, or perhaps more accurately, wilfully ignorant. The two are both massively materialistic, using their televised "ministry" as an excuse for their excesses, which build up in some ways independent of each other.

I enjoyed The Eyes of Tammy Faye for what it was, but still found myself wishing it were better. It could have been improved by, say, making direct connections between the lives of these two personalities and what the far-right in America has become today. But this movie isn't interested in that; it just wants us to be interested in their story, and to be impressed by the performance of it. I can give it that much, at least—and it's worth mentioning that Cherry Jones is also excellent as Tammy Faye's mother—but, in the end, it's still just not quite enough.

A great performance, still no substitute for the real thing.

Overall: B-