The Eyes of Tammy Faye ★★★

FIFTEEN minutes into The Eyes of Tammy Faye I was ready to shut it down.

This 2021 biographical drama tells the story of American television evangelist couple Jim and Tammy Bakker, from their rural upbringing to meeting at college, their marriage and rise to international prominence and eventual public downfall.

Even though I wanted to see the film, mainly for Jessica Chastain’s much praised performance as Tammy, I am not a fan of the type of people being portrayed.

And so the first act was personally very annoying as the pair are portrayed in every scene as if they are already proselytising on stage. Perhaps they were exactly the same at every moment in their private moments but somehow I doubt it and feel the film takes a simplistic route in building the characters.

Once the story gets up a head of steam you become quite engaged in their fate, but still the doubts and questions over the portrayals of their characters continue for most of the running time.

For example, Tammy is portrayed as being different to other male evangelists and their wives in that she has an innate love for people of all persuasions and belief in God’s ability to help them all, whereas many of her fellow Christian evangelists believe the Lord is most interested in helping those who help themselves, meaning those with the ability and ambition to influence others.

Of course you can’t begin to do God’s work without having the monetary foundation required, hence why many of these people are happily living in sprawling mansions.

Tammy also seems happy to accept this largesse and, apart from a couple of key scenes, we don’t actually see a lot of evidence of ongoing, egalitarian feelings and actions with only a couple of demonstrable scenes..

This undercuts our sympathies for her character and ultimately she comes across as being either totally naïve or just a couple of degrees less of a criminal than her husband or characters like the Revered Jerry Falwell.

These criticisms aside, the film is definitely worth seeing for Chastain’s performance as well as those of Andrew Garfield as Jim and particularly Vincent D’Onoforio  who relishes the opportunity to play the despicable Falwell.