"I won't go forward looking in the rear view mirror of my life. This is who I am."
The Eyes of Tammy Faye takes an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. She and her husband, Jim Bakker, rose from humble beginnings to create the world's largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. This bio pic is based off of the documentary of the same name, which I haven't had the chance to watch. Going in, I knew the basics of the story but was eager to learn much more. I have to say I left feeling a little unfulfilled, but this is such a crowd pleaser that it's hard not to take some liking. Michael Showalter can be a hit or miss with directing. His style is uneven here, but when you look at how strange Tammy Faye and Jim were it does work in most cases. It's nothing showy, in an artistic way, but it matches the energy of the story and characters. And the script is the same way. I wish some things didn't play out the way they did, but it's all about the strange tone. The dialogue is mostly good and gives the actors a chance to show off their skills. You could tell when things were written to have that classic Oscar scene. It's the story that could've been fleshed out more. Like I said, I wanted to go in knowing more, and I got just a little more information than I knew previously. Parts of their lives that seem important are just touched upon lightly. For example, her kids are mentioned/seen one or two times and then completely given up on. And Tammy Faye's beliefs and contributions towards gay rights have but one scene and then thrown away. We get pieces but never the full picture like I wanted. But the way it's played off, it's hard to be concerned until after the watch. With a topic like this, there are lessons to be learned that it tries to get at. We're watching two people doing something not so great, but we can sympathize with Tammy Faye. These subjects of televangelism, religion and politics, and capitalizing off of religion that they were almost afraid to get in depth with. It's a perfect opportunity to talk about it, but it just doesn't do it. They were more focused on character which is understandable.
The one thing that occupies our minds the whole time is how incredible Jessica Chastain is. This is the performance of her lifetime! She's unrecognizable in manner and makeup, giving it her all. I have yet to see Kristen Stewart in Spencer but I would think it would be hard to beat Chastain with what she does. Not only is she does she look different, but she changes her voice too to what sounds exactly like Tammy Faye, plus she sings! And you bet she cries a lot and her makeup runs. Andrew Garfield as also terrific as Jim Bakker. He does that funny voice too and gets straight into character. I wish there was more with Jim because we don't get to know as much about him as we do his wife. Obviously, this is about Tammy Faye but Jim is a big part and we didn't get as deep as we could've. The two are caked in makeup from start to finish. It spans their lives from college till close to death (though we do see a child version of Tammy Faye). Slowly, they become unrecognizable which is pretty cool. The only complaint I had with it is the cheeks were a bit puffed out and when it's that far out they don't move and it can be noticeable. If the movie did one thing to perfection, it was getting performances out of the two.
The movie plays out like you think it would for a bio pic. There's a few surprises as it goes along, but it's pretty easy to see what will happen. During the last act, though, there's a good 20 minutes where the movie's not sure where to go and it drags a little. The ending is spectacular but the build up was the weakest bit of the movie. I have thoughts on how it could've been handled better, but I did have such a fun time with the movie. It's hilarious, interesting, and has good messages (when they want to touch upon them) that can be learned from. I know we're still in a pandemic and box office still isn't at the rate it used to be, but it's getting there. With as much hype as this movie was getting it absolutely bombed at the box office, like bad for being in a pandemic bomb. Some theaters weren't playing it and maybe people forgot it was being released because unless it's a big studio film, not much has been advertised. The chance that this will go to VOD in a few weeks seems likely and o think this would be something to check out. If there's a theater playing it, go there because you know it'll most likely be empty given it's box office performance.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye takes an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. She and her husband, Jim Bakker, rose from humble beginnings to create the world's largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. This bio pic is based off of the documentary of the same name, which I haven't had the chance to watch. Going in, I knew the basics of the story but was eager to learn much more. I have to say I left feeling a little unfulfilled, but this is such a crowd pleaser that it's hard not to take some liking. Michael Showalter can be a hit or miss with directing. His style is uneven here, but when you look at how strange Tammy Faye and Jim were it does work in most cases. It's nothing showy, in an artistic way, but it matches the energy of the story and characters. And the script is the same way. I wish some things didn't play out the way they did, but it's all about the strange tone. The dialogue is mostly good and gives the actors a chance to show off their skills. You could tell when things were written to have that classic Oscar scene. It's the story that could've been fleshed out more. Like I said, I wanted to go in knowing more, and I got just a little more information than I knew previously. Parts of their lives that seem important are just touched upon lightly. For example, her kids are mentioned/seen one or two times and then completely given up on. And Tammy Faye's beliefs and contributions towards gay rights have but one scene and then thrown away. We get pieces but never the full picture like I wanted. But the way it's played off, it's hard to be concerned until after the watch. With a topic like this, there are lessons to be learned that it tries to get at. We're watching two people doing something not so great, but we can sympathize with Tammy Faye. These subjects of televangelism, religion and politics, and capitalizing off of religion that they were almost afraid to get in depth with. It's a perfect opportunity to talk about it, but it just doesn't do it. They were more focused on character which is understandable.
The one thing that occupies our minds the whole time is how incredible Jessica Chastain is. This is the performance of her lifetime! She's unrecognizable in manner and makeup, giving it her all. I have yet to see Kristen Stewart in Spencer but I would think it would be hard to beat Chastain with what she does. Not only is she does she look different, but she changes her voice too to what sounds exactly like Tammy Faye, plus she sings! And you bet she cries a lot and her makeup runs. Andrew Garfield as also terrific as Jim Bakker. He does that funny voice too and gets straight into character. I wish there was more with Jim because we don't get to know as much about him as we do his wife. Obviously, this is about Tammy Faye but Jim is a big part and we didn't get as deep as we could've. The two are caked in makeup from start to finish. It spans their lives from college till close to death (though we do see a child version of Tammy Faye). Slowly, they become unrecognizable which is pretty cool. The only complaint I had with it is the cheeks were a bit puffed out and when it's that far out they don't move and it can be noticeable. If the movie did one thing to perfection, it was getting performances out of the two.
The movie plays out like you think it would for a bio pic. There's a few surprises as it goes along, but it's pretty easy to see what will happen. During the last act, though, there's a good 20 minutes where the movie's not sure where to go and it drags a little. The ending is spectacular but the build up was the weakest bit of the movie. I have thoughts on how it could've been handled better, but I did have such a fun time with the movie. It's hilarious, interesting, and has good messages (when they want to touch upon them) that can be learned from. I know we're still in a pandemic and box office still isn't at the rate it used to be, but it's getting there. With as much hype as this movie was getting it absolutely bombed at the box office, like bad for being in a pandemic bomb. Some theaters weren't playing it and maybe people forgot it was being released because unless it's a big studio film, not much has been advertised. The chance that this will go to VOD in a few weeks seems likely and o think this would be something to check out. If there's a theater playing it, go there because you know it'll most likely be empty given it's box office performance.