In his book 'Dave Barry Turns 40', the author muses that the older you get the less you remember of each succeeding decade and when it comes down to it all your likely to remember of the 1980's is Tammy Faye Bakker. Tammy Faye was once a pretty big deal, an icon, famous for her heavy make up, she was ubiquitous in certain circles, and arguably a decade defining figure. Yet for those whose lives or memories don't go back to before the fall of the Iron Curtin hers may be a largely or completely unknown persona.
The new movie 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' is a reintroduction of its titular figure and her evangelist husband Jim Bakker, played heartily by Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield. Based on the well regarded 2000 documentary of the same name, the film follows Tammy Faye from her humble childhood in International Falls, Minnesota, her courtship and marriage to aspiring preacher Jim Bakker, and the couples monumental rise from traveling evangelists (who used a puppet show to attract children, who would then bring their parents), through the panicle of televangelism in it's 1980's hay day, to the collapse and aftermath of their empire through overextension and greed.
At it's height the couples PTL (Praise The Lord) ministry and network was pulling in 9 digit figures annually, was the forth biggest broadcast network in the United States, and even built a theme park. The couple embodied an aspirational, prosperity gospel mind set that a good chunk of the country found appealing, while behind the scenes infidelities, both personal and economic would build and pull the whole house of cards down.
Often garish figures who made a point of oversized emotional displays on air, the Bakkers had a clownish quality that could easily over take any attempt to portal their story dramatically. They all but ask to characterized. Yet this movie gives them a pretty fair shot, warts and all.
Directed by Michael Showalter of MTV's 1990's comedy troop 'The State', heretofore his best known film both before and behind the camera is the cult classic summer camp comedy 'Wet Hot American Summer', which came out twenty years ago. Like Adam McKay with 'Vice' or Jay Roach with 'Bombshell', this is a comedy director taking on fairly serious, real life events, playing much of it straight, but all of it with a knowing quality.
The film compresses a lot of material, to give a solid, survey course presentation of the story. I thought the thing was well paced, I was never board. In the early parts of the movie I was somewhat distracted by the prosthetics applied to Ms. Chastain that literally changed the shape of her face to conform with Tammy Faye's squattier visage. Then I got used to it.
Solid performances, both hers and Garfield's, the latter's being of necessity a little subtler. Tammy Faye is presented as being very sincere in her convictions. Yes she was overly dramatic and loved the spotlight, but she seems to have really felt that she was doing good, and she was doing some, and to genuinely have wanted to help people. Jim's motives are murkier.
Tammy Faye is presented as rather comfortable with the gay community, and in fact would lead a ministry focused on that group in her later years, after her divorce from Jim (Tammy Faye would die in 2007, Jim is still alive and once more preaching on TV). Tammy Faye was really the principle, often load woman's voice in the early days of large scale televangelism, an arena dominated by the likes of Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell Sr., the later is the chief villain in a film that is largely shades of gray. Falwell used the couples scandal's as means towards hostile takeover of their network, which would ultimately go bankrupt.
I thought there was a lot to like in this film, and though it has a TV movie quality, it's generosity and largely non judgmental approach to it's subjects was welcome, and even a little surprising. ***1/2
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