By Nathaniel R
A makeup artist fumbles, discovering she can't undo what Tammy Faye hath wrought. It's not a matter of removing the makeup and starting fresh as some of it is tattooed right on. The former televangelist's lips are permanently lined and the raccoon eyes are there to say; mascara as monument. Was this scene at the beginning or the end of the new biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye? One can never remember with framing devices that flashback to tell you the whole story that got us there but it hardly matters. The point that comes across is not so much how we got there -- though perhaps the filmmakers think go given the framing device-- but that Tammy Faye's clown makeup bioqueen persona is an absolute. She didn't will into it existence so much as uncover and reveal its eternal nature.
Is this laying it on too thick? The prose, I mean, not the mascara. Of course! But "too much" is just right for anything Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker related...
Too much was their charm, their grift, and their downfall. And it was impossible to miss if you lived through the 80s. I personally find performative religiosity creepy and I couldn't name a single televangelist working today in 2021 but such was the monoculture of the pre-internet/pre-streaming days of just three television channels that you could only partially curate your own entertainment landscape. There were fewer famous people pre internet but they were more famous, their reach extending far past what would be niche interest boundaries now.
Not that fame was ever easy to achieve. The early scenes of The Eyes of Tammy Faye work the traditional full biopic path of showing us the embryonic version of the celebrity and the hard work before the blossoming of full adult fame. Even as a child (played by Chandler Head) we see that Tammy Faye is a natural performer and utterly shameless scene-stealer, tricking her way into church and performing speaking in tongues to get the born-again crowd on her side and her disapproving sterm mother (reliable Cherry Jones) off her back. In college (when Jessica Chastain takes over the titular role) she's just as shameless, clapping back to her religion professor and flirting with a fellow student, the young Jimmy Bakker (a suprisingly convincing Andrew Garfield). Once they're on the road as a husband and wife team (he preaches, she sings and works the crowd) we see the ambition, charisma, humor, greed, sexuality, and narcissism that will all intermingle and play into their messy legend.
Pre-fame Chastain's performance is sunshine charming with a stifled undertow -- she knows that her mom held her back but hasn't quite grasped how similarly controlling Jim is, an important seed in the character arc. Once Tammy Faye is "Tammy Faye," a childwoman with impulse control problems, an unhappy marriage, denial issues, and little in the way of emotional filter, Chastain is remarkable both physically and emotionally. A wrenching subplot about Tammy Faye's emotional affair with a musician (played by real life musician Mark Wystrach) and its fallout lands remarkably well as a result. The actress is somehow fully expressive despite the ever-increasing makeup (both traditional and prosthetic) that you'd think would bury her.
Most impressive is her vocal range. She sings perfectly in-character, annoyingly saccharine but on pitch and fully invested in each note despite a glaring lack of artistry. While speaking she pitches her voice on the edge of crying and giggling simultaneously. All in all it's a perfect evocation of Tammy Faye's iconic disarming persona. What's more, for longtime fans of Chastain this star turn is distinctly in the comic register of her Oscar nominated "Celia Foote" in The Help, which, whatever one thinks of that movie as a whole, was her truly adorable mainstream breakthrough. She absolutely should do more comedies.
Jesus keeps taking me higher and higher
Jesus keeps taking me higher and higher
Daily hiding me in His abounding love
And when I stumble, He gives me a shove, yeah
You could argue (though I personally wouldn't) that Chastain is too sensational in this particular role. Her sympathetic rendering of Tammy Faye is a wonder but it does tilt us away from the grift of it all and avoid addressing any of the harm televangelism caused. Jim and Tammy Faye fleeced millions of people over the course of their storied careers. And while the gay community and Tammy Faye were naturally drawn to each other via a love of flamboyance, she was a problematic ally at best. We see the Bakker's eventual criminal comeuppance but it's laid almostly entirely at Jim's feet. More forcefully their downfall provides an even larger hidden villain to highlight. Vincent D'Onofrio plays Jerry Falwell and through his machinations you see the courtship of the future unholy union between the GOP and Evangelical Christians. With multiple villains around, the movie has no time for (and no interest in) Tammy's own culpability.
we're not doing anything wrong, though.
Chastain does offer nuanced line readings that suggest that the woman remained willfully ignorant and willfully oblivious to her own greed. But director Michael Showalter and Abe Sylvia's screenplay never decide quite how to incorporate this. A fur coat that Tammy wants to give her at-first horrified mother, takes on confused symbolic weight here. It's trying to illustrate a deal with the devil (where is this money supposed to be going rather than for more clothes and ever larger homes for the Bakkers?) and a beautiful loving connection at the same time.
Mostly The Eyes of Tammy Faye is content to paint an entertaining and sympathetic picture of this fallen famous woman, while condemning her husband. Was Tammy Faye wrongfully vilifed due to cultural and religious sexism? YES 100%. Did she know how criminal her own organization was? MAYBE. You can be a villain and wrongly vilifed. Two things can be true. But that's for a bolder movie, one operating on Jessica Chastain's exhalted \level.
Movie: B; Jessica Chastain: A
Oscar Prospects: Jessica Chastain is a good bet for a Best Actress nomination and, depending on how the rest of the year fares, it could also land in Makeup and Hair or Costumes. (Charts will be updated this week... stay tuned)