Film Review: a shot at redemption for infamous televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker
Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Not due for a general release until early next year, this is an early chance to see Jessica Chastain star as the real-life televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.
★★★★☆
When America’s televangelists fall from grace — as they usually do — they tend to fall hard, but (15A) is a surprisingly sympathetic biopic about Tammy Faye Bakker (Jessica Chastain).
A committed Christian from an early age, Tammy met the charismatic Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) at a Bible study college, where they wooed one another by quoting Scripture and reinforcing the other’s belief that religious faith is not necessarily incompatible with oodles of cash. As the Jim-and-Tammy show grows ever more popular, however, and millions of dollars coming rolling in, Tammy starts to wonder if Jim is as genuine in his faith as he professes to be — and whether he’s really the man she believed she married.
Adapted by Abe Sylvia from a documentary made by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, and directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick), pulls no punches in detailing the grasping, hypocritical world of televangelism — Jerry Falwell (Vincent D’Onofrio) is the head honcho of the televangelist mafia, but he’s only the most sinister of a whole horde of parasites preying on the hopes and fears of a vast audience.
Where this film differs from the usual televangelist narrative arc is that the sincerity of Tammy Faye’s Christianity offers her a shot at redemption — during the 1980s, she was a lone voice in televangelism advocating for the LGBT community, and especially for patients with HIV/AIDS.
Jessica Chastain is superbly chameleon-like in the lead role, virtually unrecognisable under Tammy’s trademark pancake make-up, and there’s strong support from Vincent D’Onofrio, Cherry Jones (playing Tammy’s Bible-thumping mother), and Andrew Garfield as the odiously oleaginous Jim Bakker.
(cinema release)
