The Eyes of Tammy Faye

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

From the 1960's to the 1980's, evangelist Jim Baker and his ambitious wife, Tammy Faye, rose from humble beginnings to to build an empire based on big-time evangelical Christianity--only for the couple to fall from grace because of some all-too-human sins.

  • Released: 2021-09-17
  • Runtime: 126 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, History
  • Stars: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio, Mark Wystrach, Sam Jaeger, Louis Cancelmi, Gabriel Olds, Fredric Lehne, Chandler Head, Jay Huguley, Dan Johnson, Michael MacCauley, Grant Owens, Coley Campany, Craig Newkirk, Wes Jetton, Jess Weixler, Maurie Speed, Lindsay Ayliffe, Julie P. Tuggle, Kimberly Ann Parker, Dana Marks, Alan Boell, Randy Havens, Lila Jane Meadows, Carolyn Mints, Kelly Borgnis, Kelsi Chandler, Joe Ando-Hirsh, John Johnson, Grayson Carter, Kimberly Ann Parker, Hugh Downs, Alan Dale, Ronald Reagan, Jay Leno
  • Director: Michael Showalter
 Comments
  • YvirusS - 15 May 2023
    A flawed masterpiece.
    The woman, Tammy Faye, had a fascinating life. No wonder the PTL network took off because the lady had such a charismatic personality and soulful voice. Had the Tammy-Jim duo continued to spread love without blatant monetization of God compounded with some bad financial decision-making and complex inter-personal chemistry, their story would have definitely taken a more positive turn; aftercall they did have a powerful message. It is very moving to see their demise.

    All the actresses did a tremendous job of portraying Tammy. The story had a lot more to be explored, and the runtime of feature did not do adequate justice to the story. Especially, the part where she is sidelined from the network after her admission of her cheating with a Nashville-based composer, things with the rest of her life have been curtailed short. Same goes with her not so glamorous PTL afterlife. However, given my keen interest in human interest stories, the movie was powerful enough to stir me and make me research about her and televangelism, which is equally captivating.
  • kerrydragon - 17 December 2022
    Scratched the Surfice
    Many things were left out and the story wasn't that cohesive. Jim I thought had more the essence of the real Jim Baker and Tammy was missing the tears,vulnerbility and raw nerves that she often displayed. They skimmed by the lives of the children,Jim's affair with Jessica Hawn and Tammys last years on TV and her battle with Cancer. Tammys voice and whine were missing as Jessica Chastain portrayed a more innocent side to Tammy,she also didn't look enough like her. I used to watch the PTL for years and was always taken in by their personalities they realy did have charisma way more than these actors did.
  • anniefairfield - 26 July 2022
    Great performances - wish script was stronger
    Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield were AWESOME in this. The problem is that this would have made a better limited series than movie, because the script tries to cover their entire life and the result is that you're left with unanswered questions as to exactly how and why things went down. It started to feel like one long montage.
  • ElMaruecan82 - 30 April 2022
    The sincere eyes with the false lashes...
    A few months ago, it was Oscar season and naturally biopics were parts of the main offerings. And I still remember when the frontrunners were Lady Gaga for her part as Patrizia Gucci and Nicole Kidman as Lucy Ricardo... but ultimately, it was Jessica Chastain who took the statuette for "The Eyes of Tammy Fayes", where she plays the title character.

    Tammy was the famous or infamous televangelist of humble beginnings who was as generous in love in her little Christian heart as her face was in heavy makeup. When we're introduced to her, she's got weirdly outlined lips and eyelashes so big they would put to shame Alex De Large. We get it, the woman took care of her trademarks and was plenty aware of her public image. Vanity? No. Only putting the show in show business while her husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) took part of the business part.

    But Tammy didn't care much about business, about building a theme park, about politicizing religion. Her main concern was 'love', she wanted to make sure that there was at least one Christian who thought that God loved everyone, including homosexuals. When she gave a memorable interview to AIDS-stricken pastor Steve Pieters (Randy Havens) wishing to hug him, she was as ahead of her time as Princess Diana who touched a patient when the disease was still taboo.

    That interview comes rather late in the film after we saw her enjoying the comfortable life bought by all the money raised with Jim Bakker, from their debuts as little puppeteers in local towns to their religious TV broadcast, she learned to make it with TV. She enjoyed it and she didn't care about the money, a heart so generous can only blind the mind. And "In The Eyes of Tammy Faye" it's a rather intriguing portrait of a woman who's the perfect target to caricature coming from her own side or outside (mocking heavy eyeliners she never wore) and from the big shots like Jerry Falwell (Vincent D'Onofrio) who served as fund-raisers for the republican party.

    America is shown into their extremes and Tammy Faye is caught between the two with her vulnerability and rather convenient naivety. The first acts seem to hesitate between her status as a victim or an accomplice, she's as capable as sinning as her husband and her obliviousness to the financial ongoings confine to stupidity. And so the middle-act doesn't feature a karmic comeuppance, nor a triumphant wake-up call allowing her to speak her voice. She gets a little bit of both but not enough to allow her to shine beyond her status as hometown little religious doll.

    The film is style-wise a sort of mixture of "Elmer Gantry" and "American Hustle" combined with all these cinematic jabs at TV à la "Quiz Show"... Jessica Chastain totally vanishes in a role that requires a long transformation in make up and even more singing, but I'm wondering if Andrew Garfield didn't just miss an Oscar nomination as he had gotten already one with "Tick, Tick Boom", his mimics, his shyness, his awkwardness are delivered with a sort of elasticity that befits the actor who played Spider-Man.

    But Chastain is such a powerful presence, like a tiny little mouse elbowing her way through a crowd of big elephants, by the sole power of her likability and her power of love. This is a creature we'd love to make fun at, but for some reason, her fragility, her pleas make it impossible. We get a little glimpse of her childhood where she's forbidden to go to church because her mother wasn't married... but she goes nonetheless, pretending to be touched by the grace or maybe she was, I suspect truth is a little of both, she didn't get the proper love from her mother (Cherry Jones) and yet she could find it by bringing it to the other. You don't need to ask for love when you're there to bring it.... To infuse it to people, inspiring them to love God, their country, their fellow humans... and in the process, to love her.

    That's how she easily falls in love with Jim and how her relationship instantly collapses when he's taken by his obligations and some flirting with his assistant Richard Fletcher (Louis Cancelmi) and in a world where we know the place of a woman was, she couldn't do anything. It was still nothing combined to the status of another community, to which Tammy Faye remains if not an icon, an unsung heroine.

    There's a lot of good things going in the film, it doesn't try to attack religion, as much as it shows a certain reality of times and its evolution from the conservative 50s to the swinging 60s and then the groovy 70s until the 80s and AIDS and its painful hangover... something makes these films rather enjoyable on an assumed superficial way, and if the film doesn't bring something especially new, it highlights the talent of Chastain who should focused on these projects rather than some lousy action thrillers that are so beneath her.

    Her Oscar was long overdue and as Oscar-bait and flashy as the role was, I was surprised by how immersed and engaged I was, and one thought occurred to me, they're not supposed to be entertainers (somehow) and yet I liked them even better than Lucy and Desi who were supposed to be comedians. That's the tone and style "The Ricardos" should have.

    I guess there's something about comedic directors like Michael Showalter when they're making biopics (like Adam McKay with "Vice"), they go right to the point, they cut the dull bits and even a life full of prayers and awkwardness can be made out to look flashy and entertaining. Or maybe there's just something innately flashy about religion that televangelist could spot... flashes you repeat so many times you mistake them for the light.