"The Eyes of Tammy Faye" (20212 release; 126 min.) brings the story of Tammy Faye Baker. As the movie opens, it is "1994 Palm Springs, California" and Tammy Faye is getting her makeup done. We then go to "1952. International Falls, Minnesota", as a young Tammy Faye is watching from the outside as her mom plays piano with a group of evangelicans. Tammy Faye isn't allowed in as her mom is divorced, but she perserveres and "finds" Jesus. We then shift to "1960, Minneapolis, Minnesota", when she is attending a bible college and she meets a certain Jim Baker... At this point we are less than 15 min into the film.
Couple of comments: this is directed by Michael Showalter ("Hello, My Name Is Doris" "The Big Sick"). Here he readopts the 2000 documentary of the same name into a biopic. We are familiar with much of what we see, as the Bakers build a televangelism empire, only then to see it all come crashing down. There is one compelling reason to see this film, and that is of course the performance of Jessica Chastain as the title character. I mean, it is surreal to see her, almost unrecognizable under all of the makeup, but she has all of the real Tammy Faye's mannerisms down pat, and then some. (In the movie's end credits, some of the movie's scenes play next to the real life footage of these events, and it is astonishing how well re-enacted these scenes are, down to the last details.) Andrew Garfield is okay as the money-hungry adulterer that is Jim Baker. Mark Wystrach (as Gary Paxton) is the spitting eye of Keanu Reeves. Last but not least, Jessica Chastain (who also is one of the movie's producers) does her own singing throughout, and she has quite the lovely singing voice. Who knew? Bottom line: the story of Tammy Faye would've been quite funny if it wasn't so tragic. I'll leave it to you to decide whether she was at heart a good person.
"The Eyes of Tammy Faye" opened in theaters this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati was not attended well: exactly six people (including myself). If you have any interest in the failings of televangelism couple par excellence Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, or if you simply are a fan of Jessica Chastain, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.
Couple of comments: this is directed by Michael Showalter ("Hello, My Name Is Doris" "The Big Sick"). Here he readopts the 2000 documentary of the same name into a biopic. We are familiar with much of what we see, as the Bakers build a televangelism empire, only then to see it all come crashing down. There is one compelling reason to see this film, and that is of course the performance of Jessica Chastain as the title character. I mean, it is surreal to see her, almost unrecognizable under all of the makeup, but she has all of the real Tammy Faye's mannerisms down pat, and then some. (In the movie's end credits, some of the movie's scenes play next to the real life footage of these events, and it is astonishing how well re-enacted these scenes are, down to the last details.) Andrew Garfield is okay as the money-hungry adulterer that is Jim Baker. Mark Wystrach (as Gary Paxton) is the spitting eye of Keanu Reeves. Last but not least, Jessica Chastain (who also is one of the movie's producers) does her own singing throughout, and she has quite the lovely singing voice. Who knew? Bottom line: the story of Tammy Faye would've been quite funny if it wasn't so tragic. I'll leave it to you to decide whether she was at heart a good person.
"The Eyes of Tammy Faye" opened in theaters this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati was not attended well: exactly six people (including myself). If you have any interest in the failings of televangelism couple par excellence Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, or if you simply are a fan of Jessica Chastain, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.