The Eyes of Tammy Faye
SEARCHLIGHTTo grow up in a Christian household in the late 1990’s was to know some version of the Tammy Faye Bakker story. It was a tawdry tale of corruption, deceit, and, worst of all, tacky makeup. Tammy Faye was the evangelical boogieman and a cautionary tale for anyone who was a believer. She then did a documentary with noted homosexual, RuPaul, which attempted to rehabilitate her image. Then, after decades of exile, she passed away. And that was that.
The basic tale of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker is that they were some of the first religious leaders to realise that television could be used as a type of church – preaching to the masses and taking in tithes from a congregation that reached farther than anyone could have previously imagined. Their basic concept of this ‘televangelism’ became immensely popular and lead to a huge influx of cash, which the Bakkers used to fund lavish lifestyles. Soon the scandals began piling up and the embattled couple quickly lost their empire and, in Jim’s case, ended up behind bars. At the surface, it sounds pretty cut and dry. And to an extent, it is.
Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye offers a comedic-focused and gaudy reintroduction to this much maligned televangelist in a way that both acknowledges her faults and recontextualises the brunt of the hatred that Christians and non-Christians alike had for her. Giving redemption to 90’s punchlines has become a common narrative attempt as of late with projects like Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya and Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story: Impeachment, but unlike those stories, Tammy Faye has the additional hurdle of dealing with a religious figure in a post-Trump world. It’s a Sisyphean task to ask general audiences for sympathy and nuance in regards to any modern Christian, especially one accused of fraud and embezzlement. Likewise, Tammy Faye’s slightly left-leaning politics – most notably, her support of the LGBTQ community during the height of the AIDS epidemic – makes her an even more complicated figure to portray.
Which is why The Eyes of Tammy Faye is such an impressive feat. It equally gives narrative weight to her strongly held beliefs about her faith that led to her success and her lifelong desire for luxury and opulence that caused her downfall. This is in large part to Jessica Chastain’s transformative performance. She entirely disappears into this various personas of Tammy Faye: from her bright-eyed and bushy tailed early days to the eyeshadow and lipstick-caked final years. This is even more surprising after glancing over Chastain’s filmography, which is filled to the brim with badasses, girlbosses, and villainesses. It’s a role that is completely out of what one would assume is her normal wheelhouse. But Chastain’s take on Tammy Faye understands both her inherent nativity and campiness. This lets the occasionally jarring shifts between the script’s comedic and dramatic moments to feel more natural and earned. It seems like a role Chastain, shockingly, was born to play. Likewise, Andrew Garfield and Cherry Jones shine in their roles as Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye’s staunchly religious mother. Those not intimately aware of how some Southern evangelicals act – especially in times of perceived crises – may find their performances a bit grating but, rest assured, this is positively muted compared to the real thing.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye, however, is not without a few minor faults. Abe Sylvia’s script rushes headlong through some of the most important story beats with a few too many montages and those without any knowledge of the Bakker’s may be left a little confused. There’s probably a conversation to be had one whether this lengthy tale would have been better suited for a limited series that could have more fully explored some of the more the rushed third act. Overall though, these are small quibbles though for a film that does right by Tammy Faye Bakker: a woman who was by no means perfect, but whose legacy could do with a little less tarnish.
