PREACHER’S WIFE BROUGHT IN DONATIONS

TELEVISION EVANGELIST WENT ON ROLLERCOASTER RIDE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Jessica Chastain becomes Tammy Faye Bakker in the dramatization about the televangelist preacher, The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021).

Chastain steps out of character quite a bit, putting several layers over her typical high octane screen persona in the transformative role as the charismatic, entertaining and inspiring Christian preacher. 

Once Tammy Faye meets her husband, Jim Bakker, the couple decide to take on a leadership role in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Director Michael Showalter casts Andrew Garfield as Jim Bakker, and Vincent D. Onofrio as televangelist Jerry Falwell in a supporting role.

Showalter begins the narrative when the young preachers are still looking for parishioners to lead. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker resolve themselves to travelling from town to town and staging spiritual revival shows inside tents and along the roadsides, and just about anywhere else the word of God can be heard.

Chastain and Garfield are cast well together with the actors sharing a lot of screen time.

The makeup department fits both actors with facial prosthetics to round out their cheeks to those of their characters.

Garfield is able to become Jim Bakker, adopting the televangelists eye and hand mannerisms as well as body language.

Onofrio makes a delayed appearance, stirring the crowd as Falwell joins a garden party held for the Christian establishment.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye is definitely a Jessica Chastain vehicle, though. Chastain is able to replicate the real Tammy Faye in almost every aspect as she transitions through various stages of her life.

As Tammy Faye gets older and puts on a bit of weight, Chastain acts with her eyes a bit more as well as being able to mimic the many tics and mannerism through the heavier facial prosthetic people would identify as uniquely Tammy Faye.

Chastain shows how the biopic character was near oblivious to her becoming a caricature of her more successful former self. 

The Bakkers initially gathered in parishioners with integrity, but they soon fell to greed as the donations solicited during their television sermons quickly reached seven figures.

Instead of feeding the poor, the majority of donations were spent on empire building modelled after financially successful California theme parks.

This lavishness divided the Christian hierarchy. And so, before you could say ‘Heritage USA’, the scheme turned to dust.

Chastain has moments of acting brilliance, totally transforming into Tammy Faye in many scenes as she develops the character and removes the air of disbelief between the audience and the narrative.

Director Showalter keeps the narrative linear as a way of getting through several decades of history within the film runtime of 2 hours and 6 minutes.

Showalter uses flashcards to spin through a few years during which time the Bakker’s became extremely successful without much controversy. News reel clips are then used to bring in the reality of what is actually going on in the Christian camp.

Showalter showed how the televangelists, early on, suffered from the same human frailties as everyone else, which ultimately brought them down well below the moral standard of their millions of followers around the world.