By: Andrew Wing
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a 2021 American biographical drama film directed by Michael Showalter (he directed the critically acclaimed The Big Sick), based on the 2000 documentary of the same name by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of World of Wonder.
The film tells the story of Tammy Faye Bakker, who is played by Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty, Molly’s Game), from her humble beginnings growing up in International Falls, Minnesota through the rise and fall of her televangelism career and marriage to Jim Bakker, who is played by Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge, Silence, Tick, Tick… Boom!). Cherry Jones (The Village, Succession) and Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, Daredevil) also star. The screenplay is written by Abe Sylvia, while Chastain is also one of the film’s producers.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2021 and was released on September 17, 2021, by Searchlight Pictures. The film became a box office bomb, grossing $2.7 million after its initial release in theatres. Regardless of that, for her role in the film, Chastain won a SAG Award and received nominations for the Golden Globe Award and Critics Choice Award. The film received two Academy Award nominations, for Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Actress.
THE GOOD
Wow, the time has finally come. Despite only being a month or two, it feels like The Eyes of Tammy Faye has been on my list forever ever since I saw that it was streaming on HBO Max. Being a big fan of the Oscars and other notable award shows I knew that I had to check this film out and review it for one reason, and one reason only, and that was the performance of Jessica Chastain. She has been getting nominated for almost every acting award one can get nominated for her performance in this, and with how crazy the Best Actress category has been, she has as good a chance as any to take the cake at the Academy Awards later this month. With all that said, was Chastain’s performance alone enough to make this an overall good film? Keep reading to find out!
Both of the lead performances we get here from Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield are absolutely what I would call going-for-it. Director Michael Showalter just let them have the floor to themselves for two hours and it did not disappoint. They were both so committed to these weird characters, but it’s only right that we start with the star of the show, Jessica Chastain. She is simply the main reason to see this movie and maybe even the main reason it even got any Oscar nominations. Chastain is absolutely extraordinary in this, and it might be her best performance ever which says a lot. It might feel like it’s over-the-top, but I was just eating it up and I didn’t think for a second that it was too much. Her portrayal here was perfect as she shows how extroverted and effusive Tammy Faye was. I also loved how Chastain pays tribute to Tammy rather than make fun of her. She did such a good job that she somehow makes us like a character that I felt conflicted with at times, but that’s ultimately the actor’s job, to make us sympathize with any character, and Chastain aced it. Her performance alone moved me to tears at a couple of different parts of the film as she was incredibly powerful at times. She just played her character with so much empathy and compassion, and not a single note of it ever felt disingenuous.
Continuing with Chastain, this is definitely what you would call a transformative performance. She fully-humanized Tammy Faye Bakker as she dived so deeply into her as a character by always giving so much energy and soaking everything up. Now let’s get into the fun part, her Oscar chances. This movie and her performance in it is top-tier Oscar bait as the entire movie felt like an Oscar clip for her. Part of me really wants Kristen Stewart to win for her role in Spencer (see my full review here), but I have no problem with Chastain winning. She deserves it because her performance is honestly the most acting I’ve ever seen. She cries, has both a funny and weird laugh, has a funny voice, sings pretty damn good, and she wears pounds on top of pounds of makeup. She just does everything in this performance that you need to do to win an Oscar and I think she will. I mean I just don’t know how she doesn’t win for this, and she also has all the momentum after winning the SAG. It really is such a close race though, and it’s very fun and exciting, and I can’t wait to see who wins the Oscar come March 27th.
Next up when it comes to performances is the man who had himself one hell of a year in 2021, and that is Andrew Garfield. He had this obviously, he had Tick, Tick… Boom! (see my full review here) for which he got nominated for Best Actor, and he also put the red spandex back on again in Spider-Man: No Way Home (see our full review here). Wow. But back to The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Garfield was freaking excellent in this. I had no idea how much I was going to like his character in this just with him being listed as a supporting performance, but he is basically a secondary lead in this and I loved it. He is downright hilarious in this film and he goes so far with his performance. I completely bought him as he played Jim Bakker, and I bought it about as much as I bought Chastain and that says a ton. His character Jim Bakker is the one who really gets put on the hot seat here, more than Tammy Faye, and he puts his wide range of emotions on full display. I really think this is one of Garfield’s best performances also, and I have a hard time swallowing the fact that he didn’t get nominated for Best Supporting Actor. WTF!
Since we are talking about Oscar nominations, we might as well discuss the film’s second category it got nominated for aside from Best Actress, and that would be for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. I mean I knew from the second I saw this trailer that it was a lock to get nominated, but after seeing it, I think it could win. The cheeks on both lead characters were prevalent, but they were just absolutely wild on Chastain. They were sticking far out and it was very very well done. More than the cheeks though, they also did an incredible job at aging from the graying of the hair to just the wrinkles in their skin. It all looked super real, so overall the makeup was really effective.
Other things I liked in The Eyes of Tammy Faye include the production design, the supporting performances from both Cherry Jones and Vincent D’Onofrio, and also the inclusion and modern spin on all of the old archival footage. In conclusion, this movie was just a good time. It was an easy movie to enjoy and digest, thanks in large part due to the funny and extremely weird tone it had. All of the accents were crazy, and it was honestly cool too because we don’t get characters like this in film often because they are inherently unlikable to most audiences, but if this film tells us one thing, it is that these characters were quite likable.
THE BAD
As enjoyable as this film was, there was one problem that held it back, and that would be the screenplay. The biggest problem with the screenplay was that it kind of lets the character of Tammy Faye off the hook too easily considering all the terrible things she and her husband did back then while they were televangelists. More than that though, I just think this film could have gone further into some bigger issues at play during all of this such as the sort of Christian Capitalism and also how all of this intertwined into politics. I just would have liked to see these issues more on center stage. This isn’t to say that this film is never critical of her because they are, but the film is ultimately a portrayal of her personality rather than her misdeeds, and it dares to celebrate the qualities of Tammy Faye.
Another critique here is that it definitely falls into some of the trappings and tropes of biopics. It had this more funny and campy tone to it. It was also overlong as it dragged at times, and it just felt for the last thirty minutes of the film like it needed to wrap up faster than it did. And I say all that despite its really good ending. Other than that, I thought the direction here was pretty standard as the story didn’t go that deep as I have already discussed, but I had a good time with this overall, and that’s what matters most.
THE VERDICT
Thanks to a potentially Oscar-winning, deeply committed lead performance from Jessica Chastain that takes the film to another level, The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a really enjoyable and occasionally moving biopic on the rise and fall of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and her husband Jim. The makeup and hairstyling here are second to none, and Andrew Garfield’s performance as Jim Bakker only adds to the entertaining and engaging feel of the film that made it endlessly watchable.
My only quip with the film is that it was maybe a little too innocent when it came to how it portrayed the broader problems at play here such as Christian televangelism among other issues. The movie just leaves you more interested in the character rather than the terrible economic practices that actually happened during this time period, and while that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it definitely took some points off on my end.
TED TAKES RATING - 7.6/10
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is now available to watch on HBO Max. Check out the latest trailer below.