"Eyes of Tammy Faye" makes larger-than-life subject human, thanks to all-in Chastain

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

It would be low-hanging fruit to make an ironic and cutting satire out of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the “Ken and Barbie” of the televangelist world. Sharing the same name as Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s RuPaul-narrated 2000 documentary, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” is the narrative feature version, but that shouldn’t make it sound any less worthwhile. Writer Abe Sylvia (2010’s “Dirty Girl”) and director Michael Showalter (2020's "The Lovebirds") take a different approach, crafting a more affectionate character study that’s played as sincerely as everyone found the Bakkers to be. Tammy Faye is the subject here, and although her trademark was her face full of garish make-up, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” sympathetically and compassionately peels back the flamboyant, performative surface, courtesy of Jessica Chastain’s compulsively watchable performance.

Looking at Tammy Faye as a real human being and not a gussied-up cartoon character, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” finds a naïve, yes, but gentle and open-hearted soul. Born and raised in Minnesota, Tammy Faye LaValley later met aspiring preacher Jim Bakker (played by Andrew Garfield) at North Central Bible College in 1960. Their quick relationship became a ministry partnership as “soldiers of Christ,” fueling the upstart of a cable broadcast company, Praise the Lord (PTL), where they put on hand-puppet shows for children to spread the word of God. Through donations, the couple was embezzling money, but it was Tammy’s blind faith in her husband—and being under the impression that they were just doing God’s work—that made her blind to their crumbling empire. 

Aside from an up-close-and-personal opening shot of Tammy in her glory, the film does admittedly take a moment to find its groove. The make-up—and not Tammy’s loud eyelashes, lipstick, permanently drawn-on eyebrows, and lip lines, but the transformative behind-the-scenes prosthetics of her chipmunk cheeks—is distracting at first. Jim and Tammy were real people, but the golly-gee earnestness is almost too hard to buy initially. It might be sometime after the early days of Jim and Tammy meeting that all hammy distraction disappears and the performances carry the day. These were larger-than-life figures, and Jessica Chastain in particular is giving a showy performance that gets right the televangelist spectacle but never lacks vulnerability, humor, shading, and a great deal of grace.

Without belittling any of the supporting performances or the care that went into recreating the look and feel of the period, the film belongs to Jessica Chastain through and through. As Tammy, Chastain endears, emulating the chirpy demeanor and Minnesota accent but more importantly locating an inner life and never making her a dim punchline. She may have seemed childlike with the pitch of her Betty Boop-like voice (which her husband even dismissed), but Tammy loved people and had love in her heart for all, even Diet Coke and those sinful homosexuals. As played by Chastain, Tammy was a force of nature, not afraid to speak her mind, particularly when taking a seat at the boys’ table with Reverend Jerry Falwell Sr. (Vincent D’Onofrio), and belonged on TV just as much as her husband, if not more. Andrew Garfield is also quite good, nailing Jim Bakker’s charisma and cadence but also his hypocrisy, and Cherry Jones does solid supporting work to set the foundation for Tammy as her once-religious but later-skeptical mother. It’d be a crime not to mention the pitch-perfect production and costume design by Laura Fox and Mitchell Travers, respectively, both appropriately tacky (not at the time) without looking like outright parody; there’s also a meticulous recreation of the Bakkers’ iconic 1987 “Nightline” interview with Ted Koppel.

Michael Showalter’s “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” works as a companion piece to the documentary that already exists, perhaps not filling in many blanks but fleshing out Tammy beyond a look that many deemed to be clownish. Whereas a limited series could have taken a deeper dive, the script by Abe Sylvia still covers a lot of material within two hours without making a comprehensive biopic of this couple. Jim’s gay advances and discretions with church secretary Jessica Hahn are brushed over, but it is called “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” for good reason. Perhaps nobody could play the real Tammy Faye Bakker except for the real Tammy Faye Bakker, but a performer of such emotional depth as Jessica Chastain comes quite close. Praise the Lord for Chastain.

Grade: B 

Searchlight Pictures released “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” (126 min.) in theaters on September 17, 2021.