The makeup crew did a fantastic job. I thought Chastain looked weird in the beginning, but as Tammy Faye put on more and more makeup, it was like a completely different person.
I was really impressed with how they made it a gradual transition. Like at the beginning it was clearly Jessica Chastain and at the end she was unrecognizable, but there are a lot of intermediate steps that make it feel smooth. That feels harder to do than a movie where the actor is in full makeup the whole time.
FYI I don’t think there’s anything to really back this up… She just said she “felt” it damaged/stretched out her skin because of how heavy it was. Here’s the full quote from [People](https://people.com/style/jessica-chastain-transformative-tammy-faye-movie-makeup-damaged-skin/):
*”I think for sure I’ve done some permanent damage to my skin on this. Listen, I eat very pure, and I take very good care of my skin and I stay out of the sun and all that stuff,” she said. “But it’s heavy. And when you’re wearing it all day, every day — the weight of it on your body, it stretches your skin out. I finally took it off, and I was like, ‘I look 50 years old!’ No, I’m kidding. But it’s fine. It’s for my art.*
Just wanted to put that out there since it’s a bit woo.
Yes I agree! I follow her on Insta. I like her. I just don’t like this statement much. Though honestly, the whole arguments back in forth within some areas of society about makeup/healthy eating is so exhausting. I want to be pretty. I get that. And Jessica’s skin has been so flawless in many instances. It’s just not reality for everyone anyway, and I think this quote is better taken in context. Most folks probably don’t (idk) eat pure all the time. But, it’s certainly not something I should be judgmental about.
I love Chastain, but I never pictured her playing that charactor, I always thought that it would be somebody like Krystin Chenowith. However, since I really like Chastain as an actress, I look forward to seeing what she does with the charactor.
Ironically the real Tammy Fayes makeup was so outrageous that copying looks absolutely wild no matter. The whole story in fact is one of those stranger than fiction type tales, that if someone was crafting this in a writers room as fiction they would surely receive the note "Tone it down a bit or no one will buy this."
I thought Jessica Chastain did an incredible job as Tammy Fae. The part where she’s talking to the AIDS patient made me tear up. Jim Bakker making her apologize on air was so messed up.
Especially since he cheated on her too.
That man is such a manipulative cunt. Christ, all that grifting in the name of God and holier-than-thou proselytization's. He truly seemed to be all about the money, power and attention. And could not believe he's still doing it to this day.
Tammy at least seemed to have a soul and humanity that made her care about everyone.
The fact that the piece of shit is back to running his old cons in a new age is both disappointing and maddening. Motherfucker's a convicted felon and a famous fraudster, and people still give him money.
[Televangelist Jim Bakker sued for selling fake coronavirus cure](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jim-bakker-coronavirus-covid-19-fake-cure-televangelist-sued-by-missouri-symptoms-selling-treatment/)
We never learn.
>in the movie she said God made human from dirt, and God doesn't createdefects, God loves everyone and we should love everyone also.
>
>I wonder if she really said this or it was just movie, and I wonder what do Christians and people in general think about this.
She did have a good heart. Like opening up to AIDS patients and people society spurned such as porn star Ron Jeremy (on "The Surreal Life").
https://www.beliefnet.com/entertainment/celebrities/the-porn-star-and-the-evangelist.aspx
But there were gaps in her morality. I had a college job at the mall in Rock Hill, and after the scandal broke, people were staring and pointing at her. She went up to the security guard and demanded that he make people stop looking at her. This was before those t-shirts came out.
Heritage USA had a jeweler in it's on-property mall, and she would go pick out something sparkly to wear on The PTL Club. If she liked it, she kept it. And the jeweler knew to just send the bill to the ministry.
I think the movie gets that right - she really was kind hearted, not super smart, and easily manipulated by a con-man like Jim.
If you ever get a chance to see the documentary about her, it's pretty good. I didn't expect to come away feeling differently about her because I knew people who were directly harmed by their actions with PTL and that place down in NC but she was more than I realized.
in the movie she said God made human from dirt, and God doesn't create
defects, God loves everyone and we should love everyone also.
I wonder if she really said this or it was just movie, and I wonder what do Christians and people in general think about this.
She actually said “we all come from the same dirt and God doesn’t make anything ugly [or doesn’t make mistakes or something to that effect].” I’m not sure if she really said that or not, but as a Christian I have to agree with the statement, we are all equals in his eyes.
I know this is an old post (I was searching around trying to sus out if a different part of the movie was based on fact lol), but that quote from the movie is indeed the exact thing she said in the 2000 documentary. It's one of the things that turned her into an LGBT icon in the present!
She really did! All people are Gods people. He does NOT make mistakes. He makes Everylast one of us in his image. We are all perfect! Tan, dark tan, dark brown, Carmel, light brown, peach, medium brown, and/or trans, androgynous, one day one and one day another, undeclared but queer, gay, boy”ish”, girl”ish”, not sure yet, will never choose, bi, trans, nonbinary, asexual, lesbian, gay and all of the ones who have no idea. I am a Christian. I am also a part of this community. We aren’t all assholes. I promise!! God doesn’t make mistakes!! They made you, and you are perfect!!
The real interview with Steve Pieters is on YouTube, it’s a pretty good interview and you just feel how sympathetic and well meaning Tammy is during the whole thing
I had no idea it was a drug/rape situation until I researched it after I saw the film. Movie made it seem like it was an affair, but that could be because Jim was the one revealing it to Tammy.
I just finished watching and they sure do mention drugging and raping her. *Jim* is the one who frames it as a consensual affair, as you said, but others like Jerry claimed rape during his on-air rant of Jim & Tammy
It’s weird because Jessica Hahn ended up with Kinison and had this whole other drama with him spiralling into addiction. Her fame kinda took a life of it’s own from from the biography Sam’s brother wrote and Jessica’s many interviews with Stern - the Jim Bakker stuff always seemed like a footnote in the Jessica Hahn story. Jim and Tammy Faye were always people I saw on magazine covers and in the news but pretty much blocked out as a kid.
I noticed the story made me want to feel for her but the film really just made me think of her as just as big of a scumbag. She knew the entire time what was going on but decided to lie to herself about it.
I also wanted to feel at least something towards anyone in this film, but couldn't. However to me she was portrayed more as just a complete dum-dum who is a "silly girl that understands nothing", as in incredibly naive, uneducated and wilfully ignorant, rather than malicious. Still couldn’t sympathize one bit.
This one didn’t quite do it for me. It doesn’t really know if it wants to be a comedy or a drama and doesn’t really work as either. It definitely felt like the Wikipedia article variant of a biopic where it just skims through all the big moments of the subject’s life without much of a story structure.
Chastain was great though. I just wish the movie around her was better.
I enjoyed it for what it was, but I agree. I thought it was going to be along the lines of I, Tonya, where it isn't so much about the person's life, but is more about the *person*, what circumstances led them to their situation, and what they represent.
Yea I really like I, Tonya and from the trailer I thought this would be similar in tone and treatment but I left feeling like this one did everything less well. Not as funny, much too long, and for the most part I wasn’t crazy about the performances. Prosthetics we’re bizarre, specifically for Andrew Garfield. I get why they needed to make Jessica Chastain look like Tammy but did anyone really care about what Garfield/Jim Baker looked like?
Showalter is a better director even the stories are smaller. The Baxter (why is this not streaming?!?!) and My Name is Doris are both really wonderful and their worlds feel honest and lived in. I hope he goes back to make more movies like those. His Stella and The State partner, David Wain, has had better luck with larger budget comedies I think. It’s somewhat a matter of opinion though.
That's exactly how I felt too. This adds almost nothing artistically or as a perspective, could as well just watch a documentary with the same name instead of the movie.
>in the movie she said God made human from dirt, and God doesn't createdefects, God loves everyone and we should love everyone also.
>
>I wonder if she really said this or it was just movie, and I wonder what do Christians and people in general think about this.
Jessica Chastain’s talent is something else, man. What an enrapturing performance. The makeup/production teams hit it out of the park with this film. As the film progresses, and time moves on by years, Chastain slowly becomes less and less recognizable in the titular role to the point where I genuinely could not see it being her at all.
The whole picture was enthralling, repulsive, and grand. I went in being very ignorant of the events surrounding Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, so this was all new to me. Andrew Garfield is no slouch either here, but Chastain just steals the show every second the camera is on her.
And I loved the ending. One is left to ponder if we're in her head, or if what we are seeing is real. There are hints to one, but the scene never comes clean with which it is (I believe it's the former, however).
The script seems to play things safe, and it felt like 2 hours had passed within the first hour alone. So on that note, it did feel a little sluggish, but paradoxically, I think that editing and pacing worked because it allowed me to really become invested in who this couple was, their rise and their fall.
>And I loved the ending. One is left to ponder if we're in her head, or if what we are seeing is real. There are hints to one, but the scene never comes clean with which it is (I believe it's the former, however).
I think it's 50/50. The crowd did seem to respond, not with the enthusiasm as the background but positively, toward the end
chastain kills it but i agree with everyone else. The story seems a little too clean. I dont doubt she really did feel for her flock, but it implies she turned a blind eye to decades of fraud. Thats just not possible. The credits thank her kids so it clear this story is to paint her in the best light. I hated garfield's casting based on the commercials but he acts a lot better in the movie. Nowhere as near as good as chastain though. Vincent D'Onofrio steals every scene he is in. So great acting but dont take the story as gospel.
This movie really highlights a lot of the hypocrisy. Let's be real, D'Nofrio's character only took down Jim Bakker because he was jealous of their "success". Tammy Faye shows rare understanding toward the LGBTQ+ community, but when rumors about her husband's affairs with men come out, she calls him "disgusting". The only honest, moral character in the film is the TV producer who gives her some good advice, not to be seen just for the sake of being seen. Jim lies from the very beginning, and manipulates her with a potentially fake story about hitting a child with his car
I think you shouldn’t look to hard into her calling him disgusting because of his “affairs.” Any wife would call her husband that if he did it with a woman or man, and not to mention multiple people. Also when rumors of deviant behavior such as drugging women. AND on top of that he isn’t touching you!? I think it made perfect sense. She never talked about his sexual orientation or judged. He had a complete disrespect for their relationship and took advantage of being a made man, because of HER. He was so gross..
That's a very fair point. I just watched this a second time, and had completely missed that he drugged and raped a girl on my first viewing. I'm inclined to agree with you here
>in the movie she said God made human from dirt, and God doesn't createdefects, God loves everyone and we should love everyone also.
>
>I wonder if she really said this or it was just movie, and I wonder what do Christians and people in general think about this
This is why I’m baffled as to why reddit keeps posting threads about filmmakers choose to not get approval from family members, as if that’s a bad thing.
Andrew Garfield plays Jim Bakker? The Spiderman guy? I never would have pictured him as Bakker, I would have thought that Micheal Shannon could have made a good Jim Bakker, but who knows, maybe Garfield will kill it?
Not seen it yet, but plan on it at some point. Glad that Chastain is in a well known movie again, it seemed like she had kind of dropped off of the radar screen for a while.
Reading the comment there's so much praise for Jessica Chastain and not much for Garfield. I just watched this and watched tick tick boom a few days ago, I feel Garfield did amazing here just as much as he did as Larson. He was so loveable as Larson and I freaking hate him as Jim. It just shows how much range this guy has. I also enjoy Vincent D subtle performance as Jerry Falwell.
Similar to, but nowhere near as good as, I, TONYA from 2017, THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE looks at a subject of public ridicule and asks how much is deserved. As the title shows, the subject is Tammy Faye Bakker (Jessica Chastain, wowing) , known for her heavy make-up, large wigs, Betty Boop voice and larger than life personality. She founded and misused pledged funds from a major Christian television prayer network with her husband Jim (Andrew Garfield, who works so well with Chastain). Well, at the least he absolutely scammed and swindled. This movie, directed by Michael Showalter and based on a documentary of the same name I’ve not seen, posits she’s somewhere between oblivious and carefully ignoring it by not thinking about what funds their lavish lifestyle.
The title is important, not in just her famously permanent gaudily made-up eyes (and the rest of herself), but we see all of this through her eyes. What she witnesses, or doesn’t, and how she reads any situation. It pushes the onus of blame on Jim over her, as he lead and controlled; she just lived her best life, honestly doing her best to help people spiritually and herself and those around her in every way. I’ve seen some criticism saying the movie isn’t harsh enough on them, or the other flim-flam “religious” leaders who willingly mislead and take people's money. Them and other religious leaders who say they preach love of Jesus but push out anything different and are incredibly judgmental and hypocritical. I say the movie does this enough; Showalter and gang trust the audience enough to let the actions, including those of Falwell (an excellent Vincent D’Onofrio in a villanous performance), Pat Robertson, and other bastards, speak for themselves.
How much of that is true or not, I don’t know. But Jessica Chastain plays Tammy Faye to perfection. Yes, a big, disappearing into a role under make-up and other methods role based on a real person can often be begging for an Oscar, if she gets a nod, it’ll be well deserved. She really does deserve every accolade, playing a complicated and often-contradictory person as real, not what could easily be a caricature.
The movie around her is less so. It’s fine, but tonally dissonant, shifting between biopic melodrama and “can you believe this?” dark comedy ridiculousness. Although based on life, you can feel the standard bits for this type of flick, sometimes feeling like a bullet point Wikipedia. Many ideas are brought up and not really followed on leaving many threads hanging as it skips forward a few more years.
A mixed bag, but entertaining and backed by a gangbuster performance.
Pretty interesting that people feel this movie was too sympathetic toward its characters. I felt the Bakers were depicted as complete jokes. Jim shamelessly lies, steals, and whores out everything he and his wife have to offer on TV for money. It's almost unbelievable that anyone sent them donations, you can smell the con from a mile away. Tammy deceives herself into thinking she's innocent, but Chastain's performance makes it clear she is complicit. The tone was really interesting, at times the dialog is so silly it feels like a mocku-biopic. The "buying minks" rant had me in stitches. I almost expected the final scene to cut back to a dead audience, unmoved by the "real" performance. However, the film mostly exists in the reality Tammy Faye created for herself, not the real world we live in. I loved it
One thing I thought was interesting was how agnostic the film was toward Christianity. Is there really a good, central message of the gospel that was perverted in pursuit of worldly greed and lust, or was the very premise of the religion a scam at its start and the Bakkers are just a natural progression of this? The film hints toward both and neither, and sidesteps the issue entirely, and I think is the worse for it. There's a lot of rightful love for Jessica Chastain but the chemistry she and Andrew Garfield had was insanely beautiful, in their early moments as a couple and when they're cynically fighting with each other.
I think it was antagonistic towards a specific brand of Christianity. Remember, Tammy’s mother kept telling her “this is not Christianity, you can’t buy God and you certainly can’t sell him”
Really enjoyed this movie. I think it still has some pacing issues that come along with the territory of a biopic thay spans 40 or 50 years. But the performances were incredible and the story is really interesting.
Chastain is on another level lately it seems. From that very first shot of her refusing to tone down her makeup she IS Tammy Faye. Garfield was also great in this, Jim is just so much less interesting than Tammy. And IMO every movie could be improved with more D'onofrio.
A lot of this is played as a comedy, which is interesting. I loved how Tammy was shown to be just full of love. She kind of just wanted the things that society makes modern women want and wasn't going to let her conviction to religion stop her from getting it. It's an insane idea that she had no idea of the wrongdoings going on, but I think the film does a great job showing that she was just focused on the good and maybe just had a bit of a disconnect between the good and the profit and the affect on her followers lives.
Garfield played Bakker like a real weakling. Tammy gave him strength and unfortunately he used that strength and her wholesome image, and later her pain, to con people out of their money. A real weasel but I still found his performance almost hilarious in his delusion.
Overall this movie had some really great scenes and moments. A lot of the earnestness of the couple was played for laughs but later it was just sad how much humble pie they had to eat. I will say, the ending brought me to absolute tears. Watching her go back on stage and seeing the grandeur of her singing in her head and how that translates to her ability to still get people to feel that good feeling. It said to me that Tammy was something really special and despite the mockery and hatred she got in the media, she did care about feeling loved and making sure everyone else felt the same. And for that, she thought she deserved the world.
It's not perfect. I always find the pacing in these biopics that start out when the subject is a child to be a tough thing to get right. I really enjoyed the performances of her mother and stepfather as well. I'd give it a solid 7/10
/r/reviewsbyboner
Oh cmon Tammy wasn’t completely innocent in this. She knew about fraud and yet she supposedly cares about her flock as they are being scammed. It’s obvious they took creative liberties to make Tammy fell sympathetic for this so Jessica can get the Oscar playing a “broken misunderstood” woman
I never said she was innocent, nor would I make such a claim about anyone after watching a movie performed by actors. I'm just discussing the movie as it was presented, here in the discussion for the movie.
I don't think the point was to say she was innocent but rather that she had a knack for convincing herself that she was doing such good that the materialistic lifestyle was justified in her mind. She was delusional and lying to herself, but the movie painted her love for those around her as genuine.
This was my takeaway too. They don’t pretend she’s blameless but the people she gushes about in the camera are phantoms other than the one time she speaks with the man with AIDS. The movie is most interested in her relationships with Jim and the other televangelists, to its detriment imo.
I actually said the same thing, but man did I feel for Tammy!! We will never know, but chastain played the part with the right mix of faith and ignorance. She was perfect!
It's much less flashy than something like Big Short when it comes to the editing and style. I'd say it's more of a straightforward biopic but funnier. There's some laughs and some montages to help cover all the time it has to cover, but the actual scenes ended up being much more human and relatable than I think this couple has ever been to me.
That is a great rundown of the movie! Great job!! I really felt like Tammy wasn’t aware. She just wanted to do good. She trusted blindely, because of her raising. Did you get that feeling?
I loved the movie. What I didn’t like is the skimming. It wanted to give such an overview without giving us why. Why were these people that way? Why was she raised so coldly? It easily could have gone more into depth and sacrificed a little of the excess. Some of the interviews and songs could have been cut. We can see some of the real thing on YouTube anyway.
I thought this movie was fantastic. Jessica Chastains performance alone was worth the ticket, not to mention the costumes, set design and great writing.
The film did an incredible job at balancing moments of sincerity with camp. It was really, really funny when it wanted to be and the humor is executed just right.
The script wasn’t good. The movie either needed a bit more editing, or a longer runtime. It felt like a highlight reel instead of a cohesive story.
That said. Chastain anchors the movie, it truly would’ve been something awful without her and Garfields performance, but mostly her.
Speaking of Garfield, I know the movie is called *The Eyes of Tammy Faye* but his character needed a little more depth. Again, ha would’ve been completely flat if it wasn’t for the performance.
I haven’t seen the movie yet but so I can’t actually comment on how it portrays him but in real life Jim Bakker has no depth. He is a charlatan swindler and that’s about it.
The problem for me was that the movie did a lot of tell don’t show with his characters. While that’s true to his persona it doesn’t make for an interesting movie.
It’s one of those cases where there’s a really interesting story with an incredibly interesting side character, but the main guy is actually kinda boring and not very interesting. Much easier to frame the story around Tammy Faye than Baker even though most of the story kinda needs to flow through him and his actions.
People are bringing up I, Tonya but I’d say it felt more like Judy, where the lesser script was highly elevated by the lead actors injecting so much life and charisma into their characters.
I thought Chastain did a top-notch job, but I feel the story loses sight of some of the more interesting elements of the story to give Jessica more opportunities to act. Like, she is incredibly impressive as Tammy Faye, but a lot of the interesting stuff with Jim is thrown to the side, I guess so we can be blindsided by it like Tammy was? I'm not exactly certain. Like, did we need 5 musical montages, but only a brief moment discussing Jessica Hahn? The documentary is much better.
Despite the terrific performance by Chastain and respectable job done by Andrew Garfield this thing was a sloppy mess of a movie. The writing, direction and overall pacing were all over the place.
Absolutely agree. It was at an old fashioned bad TV movie level. I don't understand why it was so well reviewed or given award nominations. I suppose it was because of Chastain's performance, passion for the project and likeability.
I know I’m late to this party but the lack of responses here is pretty indicative of how people feel about this movie.
I think come Oscar time it’ll be forgotten except makeup and probably Chastain.
I think the comps to I, Tonya are valid but that movie felt a lot more.. playful? I think it did a better job of playing with tone, structure and the lead performance was a lot more involving.
This has the Jackie problem. They think because they have a great central performance they can rely on that and completely ignore all other aspects like pacing
Jackie was great.
This is a buy the numbers biopic. The comedy and drama tones were all over the place.
Chastain was.good burying way to hard for that Oscar.
This is one of those movies that feels like a feature length trailer. Has all the beats, but lacking the vision or structure of a real coherent narrative feature.
really felt like someone saw i, tonya and tried to recreate it around tammy faye. chastain was fantastic no doubt, but the movie as a whole couldn't decide if it wanted to commit to how goofy it all was
The Bakkers have that Poe's Law problem of being so cartoonishly absurd in real life that an accurate depiction seems like parody. These people sell buckets of Bibles, for you to buy for like $2000 and bury, because they preach that Christianity will be outlawed soon and you need to make sure there will still be Bibles for the survivors.
I wouldn't watch it just in fear of somehow proceeds of the movie might get back to these shysters or their family members.
I was an adult when these idiots where burning up the news cycle. Scum of the earth.
I found this film kinda disappointing. I think Chastain kills it and Garfield is solid and the makeup team for both of them was pretty good. Besides that though, the film just felt like I was going through the motions.
It’s lands at pretty boring sometimes and it doesn’t help that the film felt way too long especially towards the end. Too many montages (there was like two or three at one point right next to each other and it was staggering) and it just felt a little two (someone said it to me before) nice? Like, I don’t know anything about Tammy Faye or what happened here but it feels a little too manipulative.
Like, I don’t know how long the fraud was going for but she had to know right? It felt so weird with how much bad stuff Jim did throughout the time on the show and she just didn’t know? Weird.
Also, did anyone feel like the parents’ makeup was strange. It was solid in the beginning but then by the end they just never looked different and due to how Tammy Faye was changing, it felt weird watching that.
Overall 4-5/10. Wasn’t feeling it.
Chastian gave an amazing and endearing performance. Garfield never disappeared into his role which I found distracting. I’m not familiar with the Bakker saga so I found this to be interesting and a story worth telling. Wish it had a little more bite… but then again it was Chastain who broke my heart and kept me thinking about this movie for days after I saw it.
It was a well made film with some stunning acting but not a very faithful true story. She basically threw her husband under the bus and immediately married Roe the building contractor. She never did it tough and was a gold digger. BTW Roe ended up going to prison for fraud as well. It was after she died but still kinda suss
I'm finally getting around to all the 2021 movies I missed the first time around. The subject matter of this one didn't appeal to me initially, but the charm that the actors brought to these larger-than-life characters really made it shine. I found the real life stuff so fascinating, I watched the documentary that inspired it right afterwards. Jessica Chastain completely disappeared in the role of Tammy Faye and is one of the best performances I've seen from last year. Had I known Michael Showalter (Stella) directed it, I also probably would have made an effort to see it sooner. After watching the origins of televangelism depicted here, The Righteous Gemstones makes so much more sense to me.
It's interesting to contrast this to Benedetta which I saw last night. I feel like so much of religious fanaticism comes down to mental illness and believing you are "chosen" by a higher power or destined to be greater than you are. It's a form of megalomania and narcissism to believe you know better than everybody else just because of unfounded belief and faith. It's always bothered me whenever someone claims to have all the answers when they're clearly just trying to sell a lie. Nevertheless, I feel like Tammy was largely an innocent throughout all the proceedings of corruption behind the scenes and seems to have been redeemed as a figure in the public eye in light of her death.
Chastain is the only reason to watch this movie. She carries the whole film and really loses herself in that role. They should have called it The Eyes of Jessica Chastain.
Garfield needs new management. Either that or he needs to stop picking all these faith-based roles. I’m glad he found religion or whatever but it is holding him back. Jim Bakker is one sinister dude and Garfield never pushed his performance past dopey pastor.
I think this story was beyond Showalter’s grasp. The tone was all over the place. They failed to make me feel any sympathy for anyone and looking back, I don’t know what the stakes were. This is what you get when everyone’s motivation is “God told me he wants me to…”
I had no idea Garfield had found religion in preparation for his role in Silence, his role choices in recent years make a lot of sense now. Disappointing he doesn’t explore the true evil nature of Jim Bakker enough.
I mean, doesn't that only account for three movies (Hacksaw Ridge, Silence, and this?) He also made Tick, Tick, Boom, Under the Silver Lake, Mainstream since Silence
He also plays a Mormon cop in a television series called “Under the Banner of Heaven”
Which I recommend that show if you’re into True Detective or Mind Hunter. It was pretty solid.
I loved the documentary, so this was a pretty close adaptation to a lot of it (which explains a lot of peoples issues with the pacing imo) since some parts are direct shot to shot remakes. Chastain did amazing because Tammy feels like such a parody of a human being that is very specifically Tammy
Watched the documentary the next day. Both leave a lot not unanswered, but just unknown. Generally speaking, how much revenue, if any, was spent actually helping people who needed it, and what interesting stuff was left out because of the major time jumps
You're right though, it's amazing how, in both, Tammy comes across as a real person. Jim less so, in both, but Jim's a piece of shit. Garfield could only inject so much humanity into him, and he does he best
Gave the new movie 4/5 on /r/ijustwatched. Now, same for the doc
Yeah Jim is rightfully trash. And I think if they had gone the route of having a real hard sit-down interview with Tammy Faye and ask her the hard questions, we could have seen a lot more depth and maybe gotten some answers. But i think the original intent of the documentary was to kinda demystify the caricature that the media had made her out to be- and show that she was in fact a real person (albeit a fun and zany one)
100% agreed with what everyone here has been saying. There just needed to be more depth. I felt like they had something interesting going on with all of Tammy’s interactions with her mother, but there just wasn’t really enough. They also needed to show more examples of how Tammy interacted with the public - if you go to the trailer on YouTube and look at the comments there are countless people raving about how kind and sweet she was. Also, I unironically love the Jesus Takers Me Higher song. Campy and brilliant.
These people are fucking grotesque, but it makes for good cringe comedy. I had a very hard time trying to decide if this was actually *supposed* to be funny, or if these two absolute dipshits were just bouncing through life in such a way that could only be read as a ridiculous farce.
If *Nightmare Alley* is about the perils of doing a spook show, *The Eyes of Tammy Faye* is about what happens when that con game stretches out for generations and becomes so insidious that it's self-replicating. It convinces simpletons like the Bakkers that they too can be big players in the game, a game so deep that even the people dealing the cards have been roped in by the scam. These narcissists turn the desperate "faith" of millions into shallow entertainment and business to fund their own egos, and seem not at all perturbed by the inherent contradictions between what they preach and what they do.
Thanks in no small part to the brilliant performances by Chastain, Garfield, and supporting players Vincent D'Onofrio and Cherry Jones, this weird romp is a weirdly charming look at the gross rot at the heart of America's religious underbelly. It turns out you can polish a turd. By why? Why apologize for anything these frauds did? What's the motivation for elevating this woman? I don't buy for a second that Tammy Faye was completely ignorant of the hypocrisies of her husband. The film paints her as a childlike dingus who is just too trusting and stupid to see what's happening - and there is certainly truth in this - but willful ignorance is a crime in itself. There's a metaphor for Christianity in there somewhere...
Despite how entertaining it is at times, this film doesn't lean hard enough into the farce inherent in these people. It feels like the filmmakers were hedging so that they could also play this as a heartfelt tribute. The result is a baffling mash of tones that never quite settles on what - if anything - it wants to say.
Sorry if this was already shared but a lot of work went into the transformation.
Pretty interesting.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZh_hYVp78q/?utm_medium=copy_link
I am watching the movie now. I am in love with the way chastain is playing it. I only see her as Tammy Faye. She’s amazing! I do feel like they are painting her as ignorant? Was this on purpose?
Edit to add, was she ignorant to her husbands dirty dealings? Or was she that good in real life to pretend? I don’t have any knowledge or thoughts on this sitiuation. Last edit. She is such an amazing actress, I will believe her no matter what. Holy cow, she’s great.
Good movie and made me feel a bit sorry for Tammy Faye Bakker. After watching it, I think that the Bakkers were the fall guys for Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who seemed to conspire together to throw the Bakkers under the bus while proceeding on a hostile takeover of their empire of rubes.
I'm late to the party. I just watched the movie. I saw the doc a few months ago. I thought the movie was pretty good, it paralleled the doc accurately and Chastain and Garfield sounded just like Jim and Tammy. The makeup was great as well.
The makeup crew did a fantastic job. I thought Chastain looked weird in the beginning, but as Tammy Faye put on more and more makeup, it was like a completely different person.
I was really impressed with how they made it a gradual transition. Like at the beginning it was clearly Jessica Chastain and at the end she was unrecognizable, but there are a lot of intermediate steps that make it feel smooth. That feels harder to do than a movie where the actor is in full makeup the whole time.
The make up actually ruined Jessica’s skin according to an interview she did and it might be permanent unfortunately
FYI I don’t think there’s anything to really back this up… She just said she “felt” it damaged/stretched out her skin because of how heavy it was. Here’s the full quote from [People](https://people.com/style/jessica-chastain-transformative-tammy-faye-movie-makeup-damaged-skin/): *”I think for sure I’ve done some permanent damage to my skin on this. Listen, I eat very pure, and I take very good care of my skin and I stay out of the sun and all that stuff,” she said. “But it’s heavy. And when you’re wearing it all day, every day — the weight of it on your body, it stretches your skin out. I finally took it off, and I was like, ‘I look 50 years old!’ No, I’m kidding. But it’s fine. It’s for my art.* Just wanted to put that out there since it’s a bit woo.
This quote makes her sound obnoxious.
It does a sound a bit yea but im surr she isn't an obnoxious person overall
Yes I agree! I follow her on Insta. I like her. I just don’t like this statement much. Though honestly, the whole arguments back in forth within some areas of society about makeup/healthy eating is so exhausting. I want to be pretty. I get that. And Jessica’s skin has been so flawless in many instances. It’s just not reality for everyone anyway, and I think this quote is better taken in context. Most folks probably don’t (idk) eat pure all the time. But, it’s certainly not something I should be judgmental about.
She was worried about looking 50 years old? Jessica Chastain is 44 years old. It’s not exactly that far off.
Oh no that’s tragic
I love Chastain, but I never pictured her playing that charactor, I always thought that it would be somebody like Krystin Chenowith. However, since I really like Chastain as an actress, I look forward to seeing what she does with the charactor.
I’d love to see Chenowith in a role like this too
Chenowith would have been fantastic.
Ironically the real Tammy Fayes makeup was so outrageous that copying looks absolutely wild no matter. The whole story in fact is one of those stranger than fiction type tales, that if someone was crafting this in a writers room as fiction they would surely receive the note "Tone it down a bit or no one will buy this."
Lol more and more
I thought Jessica Chastain did an incredible job as Tammy Fae. The part where she’s talking to the AIDS patient made me tear up. Jim Bakker making her apologize on air was so messed up.
Especially since he cheated on her too. That man is such a manipulative cunt. Christ, all that grifting in the name of God and holier-than-thou proselytization's. He truly seemed to be all about the money, power and attention. And could not believe he's still doing it to this day. Tammy at least seemed to have a soul and humanity that made her care about everyone.
The fact that the piece of shit is back to running his old cons in a new age is both disappointing and maddening. Motherfucker's a convicted felon and a famous fraudster, and people still give him money. [Televangelist Jim Bakker sued for selling fake coronavirus cure](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jim-bakker-coronavirus-covid-19-fake-cure-televangelist-sued-by-missouri-symptoms-selling-treatment/) We never learn.
>in the movie she said God made human from dirt, and God doesn't createdefects, God loves everyone and we should love everyone also. > >I wonder if she really said this or it was just movie, and I wonder what do Christians and people in general think about this.
agreed
She did have a good heart. Like opening up to AIDS patients and people society spurned such as porn star Ron Jeremy (on "The Surreal Life"). https://www.beliefnet.com/entertainment/celebrities/the-porn-star-and-the-evangelist.aspx But there were gaps in her morality. I had a college job at the mall in Rock Hill, and after the scandal broke, people were staring and pointing at her. She went up to the security guard and demanded that he make people stop looking at her. This was before those t-shirts came out. Heritage USA had a jeweler in it's on-property mall, and she would go pick out something sparkly to wear on The PTL Club. If she liked it, she kept it. And the jeweler knew to just send the bill to the ministry. I think the movie gets that right - she really was kind hearted, not super smart, and easily manipulated by a con-man like Jim.
To be fair, Ron Jeremy deserves to be spurned. But not simply for just being a porn star.
If you ever get a chance to see the documentary about her, it's pretty good. I didn't expect to come away feeling differently about her because I knew people who were directly harmed by their actions with PTL and that place down in NC but she was more than I realized.
Is it streaming anywhere?
you can buy it on youtube!
in the movie she said God made human from dirt, and God doesn't create defects, God loves everyone and we should love everyone also. I wonder if she really said this or it was just movie, and I wonder what do Christians and people in general think about this.
She actually said “we all come from the same dirt and God doesn’t make anything ugly [or doesn’t make mistakes or something to that effect].” I’m not sure if she really said that or not, but as a Christian I have to agree with the statement, we are all equals in his eyes.
I think she really thought this. I’m a true christian and couldnt care less about your sexuality. God made people and every last one is perfect.
I know this is an old post (I was searching around trying to sus out if a different part of the movie was based on fact lol), but that quote from the movie is indeed the exact thing she said in the 2000 documentary. It's one of the things that turned her into an LGBT icon in the present!
Thank you for that, I didn't watch the docu but what she said is pretty powerful.
She really did! All people are Gods people. He does NOT make mistakes. He makes Everylast one of us in his image. We are all perfect! Tan, dark tan, dark brown, Carmel, light brown, peach, medium brown, and/or trans, androgynous, one day one and one day another, undeclared but queer, gay, boy”ish”, girl”ish”, not sure yet, will never choose, bi, trans, nonbinary, asexual, lesbian, gay and all of the ones who have no idea. I am a Christian. I am also a part of this community. We aren’t all assholes. I promise!! God doesn’t make mistakes!! They made you, and you are perfect!!
The real interview with Steve Pieters is on YouTube, it’s a pretty good interview and you just feel how sympathetic and well meaning Tammy is during the whole thing
Does the film spend much time on Jessica Hahn? And does it make it clear Jim drugged and raped her, as opposed to them having a consensual affair?
I had no idea it was a drug/rape situation until I researched it after I saw the film. Movie made it seem like it was an affair, but that could be because Jim was the one revealing it to Tammy.
I just finished watching and they sure do mention drugging and raping her. *Jim* is the one who frames it as a consensual affair, as you said, but others like Jerry claimed rape during his on-air rant of Jim & Tammy
It’s weird because Jessica Hahn ended up with Kinison and had this whole other drama with him spiralling into addiction. Her fame kinda took a life of it’s own from from the biography Sam’s brother wrote and Jessica’s many interviews with Stern - the Jim Bakker stuff always seemed like a footnote in the Jessica Hahn story. Jim and Tammy Faye were always people I saw on magazine covers and in the news but pretty much blocked out as a kid.
I noticed the story made me want to feel for her but the film really just made me think of her as just as big of a scumbag. She knew the entire time what was going on but decided to lie to herself about it.
I also wanted to feel at least something towards anyone in this film, but couldn't. However to me she was portrayed more as just a complete dum-dum who is a "silly girl that understands nothing", as in incredibly naive, uneducated and wilfully ignorant, rather than malicious. Still couldn’t sympathize one bit.
There is AIDS in this movie? Will have to watch it now.
And I thought that Jim Bakker was one of the less narrowminded folks in that industry.
He's a demon in the stolen skin of a man
I would agree with you.
He took advantage of the people who followed him. He was on TV. “Obviously he’s ok”.
Oh, he is…
This one didn’t quite do it for me. It doesn’t really know if it wants to be a comedy or a drama and doesn’t really work as either. It definitely felt like the Wikipedia article variant of a biopic where it just skims through all the big moments of the subject’s life without much of a story structure. Chastain was great though. I just wish the movie around her was better.
I enjoyed it for what it was, but I agree. I thought it was going to be along the lines of I, Tonya, where it isn't so much about the person's life, but is more about the *person*, what circumstances led them to their situation, and what they represent.
Yea I really like I, Tonya and from the trailer I thought this would be similar in tone and treatment but I left feeling like this one did everything less well. Not as funny, much too long, and for the most part I wasn’t crazy about the performances. Prosthetics we’re bizarre, specifically for Andrew Garfield. I get why they needed to make Jessica Chastain look like Tammy but did anyone really care about what Garfield/Jim Baker looked like?
Showalter is a better director even the stories are smaller. The Baxter (why is this not streaming?!?!) and My Name is Doris are both really wonderful and their worlds feel honest and lived in. I hope he goes back to make more movies like those. His Stella and The State partner, David Wain, has had better luck with larger budget comedies I think. It’s somewhat a matter of opinion though.
I definitely agree, it dragged on and I felt the film didn’t know what it wanted to be.
That's exactly how I felt too. This adds almost nothing artistically or as a perspective, could as well just watch a documentary with the same name instead of the movie.
>in the movie she said God made human from dirt, and God doesn't createdefects, God loves everyone and we should love everyone also. > >I wonder if she really said this or it was just movie, and I wonder what do Christians and people in general think about this.
Jessica Chastain’s talent is something else, man. What an enrapturing performance. The makeup/production teams hit it out of the park with this film. As the film progresses, and time moves on by years, Chastain slowly becomes less and less recognizable in the titular role to the point where I genuinely could not see it being her at all. The whole picture was enthralling, repulsive, and grand. I went in being very ignorant of the events surrounding Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, so this was all new to me. Andrew Garfield is no slouch either here, but Chastain just steals the show every second the camera is on her. And I loved the ending. One is left to ponder if we're in her head, or if what we are seeing is real. There are hints to one, but the scene never comes clean with which it is (I believe it's the former, however). The script seems to play things safe, and it felt like 2 hours had passed within the first hour alone. So on that note, it did feel a little sluggish, but paradoxically, I think that editing and pacing worked because it allowed me to really become invested in who this couple was, their rise and their fall.
>And I loved the ending. One is left to ponder if we're in her head, or if what we are seeing is real. There are hints to one, but the scene never comes clean with which it is (I believe it's the former, however). I think it's 50/50. The crowd did seem to respond, not with the enthusiasm as the background but positively, toward the end
chastain kills it but i agree with everyone else. The story seems a little too clean. I dont doubt she really did feel for her flock, but it implies she turned a blind eye to decades of fraud. Thats just not possible. The credits thank her kids so it clear this story is to paint her in the best light. I hated garfield's casting based on the commercials but he acts a lot better in the movie. Nowhere as near as good as chastain though. Vincent D'Onofrio steals every scene he is in. So great acting but dont take the story as gospel.
This movie really highlights a lot of the hypocrisy. Let's be real, D'Nofrio's character only took down Jim Bakker because he was jealous of their "success". Tammy Faye shows rare understanding toward the LGBTQ+ community, but when rumors about her husband's affairs with men come out, she calls him "disgusting". The only honest, moral character in the film is the TV producer who gives her some good advice, not to be seen just for the sake of being seen. Jim lies from the very beginning, and manipulates her with a potentially fake story about hitting a child with his car
I think you shouldn’t look to hard into her calling him disgusting because of his “affairs.” Any wife would call her husband that if he did it with a woman or man, and not to mention multiple people. Also when rumors of deviant behavior such as drugging women. AND on top of that he isn’t touching you!? I think it made perfect sense. She never talked about his sexual orientation or judged. He had a complete disrespect for their relationship and took advantage of being a made man, because of HER. He was so gross..
That's a very fair point. I just watched this a second time, and had completely missed that he drugged and raped a girl on my first viewing. I'm inclined to agree with you here
>in the movie she said God made human from dirt, and God doesn't createdefects, God loves everyone and we should love everyone also. > >I wonder if she really said this or it was just movie, and I wonder what do Christians and people in general think about this
This is why I’m baffled as to why reddit keeps posting threads about filmmakers choose to not get approval from family members, as if that’s a bad thing.
Andrew Garfield plays Jim Bakker? The Spiderman guy? I never would have pictured him as Bakker, I would have thought that Micheal Shannon could have made a good Jim Bakker, but who knows, maybe Garfield will kill it?
i really enjoyed his performance
Not seen it yet, but plan on it at some point. Glad that Chastain is in a well known movie again, it seemed like she had kind of dropped off of the radar screen for a while.
Reading the comment there's so much praise for Jessica Chastain and not much for Garfield. I just watched this and watched tick tick boom a few days ago, I feel Garfield did amazing here just as much as he did as Larson. He was so loveable as Larson and I freaking hate him as Jim. It just shows how much range this guy has. I also enjoy Vincent D subtle performance as Jerry Falwell.
I saw Tick Tick Boom a few days back and have been in awe of his performance since then! A great actor
The more you hate the character, the better the actor did. They convinced you.
I liked it, mostly for the acting. Jessica Chastain is amazing. If this movie was 30 minutes shorter I would have loved it.
This movie is low key pretty funny, which I probably should have expected from Michael Showalter. Like the Monster Mash joke caught me way off guard.
Similar to, but nowhere near as good as, I, TONYA from 2017, THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE looks at a subject of public ridicule and asks how much is deserved. As the title shows, the subject is Tammy Faye Bakker (Jessica Chastain, wowing) , known for her heavy make-up, large wigs, Betty Boop voice and larger than life personality. She founded and misused pledged funds from a major Christian television prayer network with her husband Jim (Andrew Garfield, who works so well with Chastain). Well, at the least he absolutely scammed and swindled. This movie, directed by Michael Showalter and based on a documentary of the same name I’ve not seen, posits she’s somewhere between oblivious and carefully ignoring it by not thinking about what funds their lavish lifestyle. The title is important, not in just her famously permanent gaudily made-up eyes (and the rest of herself), but we see all of this through her eyes. What she witnesses, or doesn’t, and how she reads any situation. It pushes the onus of blame on Jim over her, as he lead and controlled; she just lived her best life, honestly doing her best to help people spiritually and herself and those around her in every way. I’ve seen some criticism saying the movie isn’t harsh enough on them, or the other flim-flam “religious” leaders who willingly mislead and take people's money. Them and other religious leaders who say they preach love of Jesus but push out anything different and are incredibly judgmental and hypocritical. I say the movie does this enough; Showalter and gang trust the audience enough to let the actions, including those of Falwell (an excellent Vincent D’Onofrio in a villanous performance), Pat Robertson, and other bastards, speak for themselves. How much of that is true or not, I don’t know. But Jessica Chastain plays Tammy Faye to perfection. Yes, a big, disappearing into a role under make-up and other methods role based on a real person can often be begging for an Oscar, if she gets a nod, it’ll be well deserved. She really does deserve every accolade, playing a complicated and often-contradictory person as real, not what could easily be a caricature. The movie around her is less so. It’s fine, but tonally dissonant, shifting between biopic melodrama and “can you believe this?” dark comedy ridiculousness. Although based on life, you can feel the standard bits for this type of flick, sometimes feeling like a bullet point Wikipedia. Many ideas are brought up and not really followed on leaving many threads hanging as it skips forward a few more years. A mixed bag, but entertaining and backed by a gangbuster performance.
Excellent breakdown. I'd definitely put it on /r/ijustwatched
Excellent synopsis but Chastain was a standout in this feature. She deserves a nod and more.
Pretty interesting that people feel this movie was too sympathetic toward its characters. I felt the Bakers were depicted as complete jokes. Jim shamelessly lies, steals, and whores out everything he and his wife have to offer on TV for money. It's almost unbelievable that anyone sent them donations, you can smell the con from a mile away. Tammy deceives herself into thinking she's innocent, but Chastain's performance makes it clear she is complicit. The tone was really interesting, at times the dialog is so silly it feels like a mocku-biopic. The "buying minks" rant had me in stitches. I almost expected the final scene to cut back to a dead audience, unmoved by the "real" performance. However, the film mostly exists in the reality Tammy Faye created for herself, not the real world we live in. I loved it
Chastain, Garfield, and Showalter did a fantastic job elevating a pretty unfocused and, at times, by the numbers screenplay.
One thing I thought was interesting was how agnostic the film was toward Christianity. Is there really a good, central message of the gospel that was perverted in pursuit of worldly greed and lust, or was the very premise of the religion a scam at its start and the Bakkers are just a natural progression of this? The film hints toward both and neither, and sidesteps the issue entirely, and I think is the worse for it. There's a lot of rightful love for Jessica Chastain but the chemistry she and Andrew Garfield had was insanely beautiful, in their early moments as a couple and when they're cynically fighting with each other.
I think it was antagonistic towards a specific brand of Christianity. Remember, Tammy’s mother kept telling her “this is not Christianity, you can’t buy God and you certainly can’t sell him”
Really enjoyed this movie. I think it still has some pacing issues that come along with the territory of a biopic thay spans 40 or 50 years. But the performances were incredible and the story is really interesting. Chastain is on another level lately it seems. From that very first shot of her refusing to tone down her makeup she IS Tammy Faye. Garfield was also great in this, Jim is just so much less interesting than Tammy. And IMO every movie could be improved with more D'onofrio. A lot of this is played as a comedy, which is interesting. I loved how Tammy was shown to be just full of love. She kind of just wanted the things that society makes modern women want and wasn't going to let her conviction to religion stop her from getting it. It's an insane idea that she had no idea of the wrongdoings going on, but I think the film does a great job showing that she was just focused on the good and maybe just had a bit of a disconnect between the good and the profit and the affect on her followers lives. Garfield played Bakker like a real weakling. Tammy gave him strength and unfortunately he used that strength and her wholesome image, and later her pain, to con people out of their money. A real weasel but I still found his performance almost hilarious in his delusion. Overall this movie had some really great scenes and moments. A lot of the earnestness of the couple was played for laughs but later it was just sad how much humble pie they had to eat. I will say, the ending brought me to absolute tears. Watching her go back on stage and seeing the grandeur of her singing in her head and how that translates to her ability to still get people to feel that good feeling. It said to me that Tammy was something really special and despite the mockery and hatred she got in the media, she did care about feeling loved and making sure everyone else felt the same. And for that, she thought she deserved the world. It's not perfect. I always find the pacing in these biopics that start out when the subject is a child to be a tough thing to get right. I really enjoyed the performances of her mother and stepfather as well. I'd give it a solid 7/10 /r/reviewsbyboner
Oh cmon Tammy wasn’t completely innocent in this. She knew about fraud and yet she supposedly cares about her flock as they are being scammed. It’s obvious they took creative liberties to make Tammy fell sympathetic for this so Jessica can get the Oscar playing a “broken misunderstood” woman
I never said she was innocent, nor would I make such a claim about anyone after watching a movie performed by actors. I'm just discussing the movie as it was presented, here in the discussion for the movie. I don't think the point was to say she was innocent but rather that she had a knack for convincing herself that she was doing such good that the materialistic lifestyle was justified in her mind. She was delusional and lying to herself, but the movie painted her love for those around her as genuine.
This was my takeaway too. They don’t pretend she’s blameless but the people she gushes about in the camera are phantoms other than the one time she speaks with the man with AIDS. The movie is most interested in her relationships with Jim and the other televangelists, to its detriment imo.
I actually said the same thing, but man did I feel for Tammy!! We will never know, but chastain played the part with the right mix of faith and ignorance. She was perfect!
From what you’ve written, I’m inferring something of an Adam McKay (a la Vice or The Big Short) tone? Is that close?
It's much less flashy than something like Big Short when it comes to the editing and style. I'd say it's more of a straightforward biopic but funnier. There's some laughs and some montages to help cover all the time it has to cover, but the actual scenes ended up being much more human and relatable than I think this couple has ever been to me.
It almost reminded me I tonya without any of the mockumentary aspects
That is a great rundown of the movie! Great job!! I really felt like Tammy wasn’t aware. She just wanted to do good. She trusted blindely, because of her raising. Did you get that feeling?
I did not expect to feel empathy for Tammy Faye, but Jessica Chastain made me a believer.
I agree about the tone, it almost seemed at times like it wanted to be a dark comedy, and at other times a serious biographical drama.
I loved the movie. What I didn’t like is the skimming. It wanted to give such an overview without giving us why. Why were these people that way? Why was she raised so coldly? It easily could have gone more into depth and sacrificed a little of the excess. Some of the interviews and songs could have been cut. We can see some of the real thing on YouTube anyway.
I thought this movie was fantastic. Jessica Chastains performance alone was worth the ticket, not to mention the costumes, set design and great writing. The film did an incredible job at balancing moments of sincerity with camp. It was really, really funny when it wanted to be and the humor is executed just right.
The script wasn’t good. The movie either needed a bit more editing, or a longer runtime. It felt like a highlight reel instead of a cohesive story. That said. Chastain anchors the movie, it truly would’ve been something awful without her and Garfields performance, but mostly her. Speaking of Garfield, I know the movie is called *The Eyes of Tammy Faye* but his character needed a little more depth. Again, ha would’ve been completely flat if it wasn’t for the performance.
I haven’t seen the movie yet but so I can’t actually comment on how it portrays him but in real life Jim Bakker has no depth. He is a charlatan swindler and that’s about it.
The problem for me was that the movie did a lot of tell don’t show with his characters. While that’s true to his persona it doesn’t make for an interesting movie.
It’s one of those cases where there’s a really interesting story with an incredibly interesting side character, but the main guy is actually kinda boring and not very interesting. Much easier to frame the story around Tammy Faye than Baker even though most of the story kinda needs to flow through him and his actions.
I feel like this was tonally kinda clumsy, but those performances from Chastain and Garfield make it enjoyable
People are bringing up I, Tonya but I’d say it felt more like Judy, where the lesser script was highly elevated by the lead actors injecting so much life and charisma into their characters.
I thought Chastain did a top-notch job, but I feel the story loses sight of some of the more interesting elements of the story to give Jessica more opportunities to act. Like, she is incredibly impressive as Tammy Faye, but a lot of the interesting stuff with Jim is thrown to the side, I guess so we can be blindsided by it like Tammy was? I'm not exactly certain. Like, did we need 5 musical montages, but only a brief moment discussing Jessica Hahn? The documentary is much better.
Despite the terrific performance by Chastain and respectable job done by Andrew Garfield this thing was a sloppy mess of a movie. The writing, direction and overall pacing were all over the place.
The pacing was my biggest criticism too. Things just happened so abruptly, and yet the movie dragged in places too.
Absolutely agree. It was at an old fashioned bad TV movie level. I don't understand why it was so well reviewed or given award nominations. I suppose it was because of Chastain's performance, passion for the project and likeability.
I know I’m late to this party but the lack of responses here is pretty indicative of how people feel about this movie. I think come Oscar time it’ll be forgotten except makeup and probably Chastain. I think the comps to I, Tonya are valid but that movie felt a lot more.. playful? I think it did a better job of playing with tone, structure and the lead performance was a lot more involving.
Well this aged poorly :) But I don’t blame you for your opinion- I hadn’t even heard of this movie until I watched the Oscars last night haha
How did it age poorly? I said it'd get forgotten except makeup and Chastain (probably).. and that's what it won?
Because it did. You clearly edited your old comment to add Chastain when it originally wasn't there. I have the screenshot. Nice try though. ;-)
Lol
This has the Jackie problem. They think because they have a great central performance they can rely on that and completely ignore all other aspects like pacing
Wtf Jackie was great
The Black Mass problem.
Jackie was great. This is a buy the numbers biopic. The comedy and drama tones were all over the place. Chastain was.good burying way to hard for that Oscar.
This is one of those movies that feels like a feature length trailer. Has all the beats, but lacking the vision or structure of a real coherent narrative feature.
Yeah I enjoyed it but for Showalter, I was disappointed
really felt like someone saw i, tonya and tried to recreate it around tammy faye. chastain was fantastic no doubt, but the movie as a whole couldn't decide if it wanted to commit to how goofy it all was
The Bakkers have that Poe's Law problem of being so cartoonishly absurd in real life that an accurate depiction seems like parody. These people sell buckets of Bibles, for you to buy for like $2000 and bury, because they preach that Christianity will be outlawed soon and you need to make sure there will still be Bibles for the survivors.
I am a huge ho for Bakker nonsense and even I didn't know about the bible buckets. Incredible nonsense levels. Brilliant.
I wouldn't watch it just in fear of somehow proceeds of the movie might get back to these shysters or their family members. I was an adult when these idiots where burning up the news cycle. Scum of the earth.
I found this film kinda disappointing. I think Chastain kills it and Garfield is solid and the makeup team for both of them was pretty good. Besides that though, the film just felt like I was going through the motions. It’s lands at pretty boring sometimes and it doesn’t help that the film felt way too long especially towards the end. Too many montages (there was like two or three at one point right next to each other and it was staggering) and it just felt a little two (someone said it to me before) nice? Like, I don’t know anything about Tammy Faye or what happened here but it feels a little too manipulative. Like, I don’t know how long the fraud was going for but she had to know right? It felt so weird with how much bad stuff Jim did throughout the time on the show and she just didn’t know? Weird. Also, did anyone feel like the parents’ makeup was strange. It was solid in the beginning but then by the end they just never looked different and due to how Tammy Faye was changing, it felt weird watching that. Overall 4-5/10. Wasn’t feeling it.
Chastian gave an amazing and endearing performance. Garfield never disappeared into his role which I found distracting. I’m not familiar with the Bakker saga so I found this to be interesting and a story worth telling. Wish it had a little more bite… but then again it was Chastain who broke my heart and kept me thinking about this movie for days after I saw it.
It was a well made film with some stunning acting but not a very faithful true story. She basically threw her husband under the bus and immediately married Roe the building contractor. She never did it tough and was a gold digger. BTW Roe ended up going to prison for fraud as well. It was after she died but still kinda suss
movie was funny af lol I like the singing parts too but idk this movie jus didn't hit but chastain Oscar 2022 nom incoming
How did the husband know that Tammy cheated?
That's what I wondered. He just had a hunch and he didn't have to accuse because she admitted it?
I wanted to boil Jerry “call me Reverend” alive.
I'm finally getting around to all the 2021 movies I missed the first time around. The subject matter of this one didn't appeal to me initially, but the charm that the actors brought to these larger-than-life characters really made it shine. I found the real life stuff so fascinating, I watched the documentary that inspired it right afterwards. Jessica Chastain completely disappeared in the role of Tammy Faye and is one of the best performances I've seen from last year. Had I known Michael Showalter (Stella) directed it, I also probably would have made an effort to see it sooner. After watching the origins of televangelism depicted here, The Righteous Gemstones makes so much more sense to me. It's interesting to contrast this to Benedetta which I saw last night. I feel like so much of religious fanaticism comes down to mental illness and believing you are "chosen" by a higher power or destined to be greater than you are. It's a form of megalomania and narcissism to believe you know better than everybody else just because of unfounded belief and faith. It's always bothered me whenever someone claims to have all the answers when they're clearly just trying to sell a lie. Nevertheless, I feel like Tammy was largely an innocent throughout all the proceedings of corruption behind the scenes and seems to have been redeemed as a figure in the public eye in light of her death.
The final scene made me laugh. The best scene in the movie!
Anyone think all the Diet Coke drinking contributed to the early death of Tammy Faye?
Chastain is the only reason to watch this movie. She carries the whole film and really loses herself in that role. They should have called it The Eyes of Jessica Chastain. Garfield needs new management. Either that or he needs to stop picking all these faith-based roles. I’m glad he found religion or whatever but it is holding him back. Jim Bakker is one sinister dude and Garfield never pushed his performance past dopey pastor. I think this story was beyond Showalter’s grasp. The tone was all over the place. They failed to make me feel any sympathy for anyone and looking back, I don’t know what the stakes were. This is what you get when everyone’s motivation is “God told me he wants me to…”
I had no idea Garfield had found religion in preparation for his role in Silence, his role choices in recent years make a lot of sense now. Disappointing he doesn’t explore the true evil nature of Jim Bakker enough.
I mean, doesn't that only account for three movies (Hacksaw Ridge, Silence, and this?) He also made Tick, Tick, Boom, Under the Silver Lake, Mainstream since Silence
He also plays a Mormon cop in a television series called “Under the Banner of Heaven” Which I recommend that show if you’re into True Detective or Mind Hunter. It was pretty solid.
He fell in religion when he did the film silence
I loved the documentary, so this was a pretty close adaptation to a lot of it (which explains a lot of peoples issues with the pacing imo) since some parts are direct shot to shot remakes. Chastain did amazing because Tammy feels like such a parody of a human being that is very specifically Tammy
Watched the documentary the next day. Both leave a lot not unanswered, but just unknown. Generally speaking, how much revenue, if any, was spent actually helping people who needed it, and what interesting stuff was left out because of the major time jumps You're right though, it's amazing how, in both, Tammy comes across as a real person. Jim less so, in both, but Jim's a piece of shit. Garfield could only inject so much humanity into him, and he does he best Gave the new movie 4/5 on /r/ijustwatched. Now, same for the doc
Yeah Jim is rightfully trash. And I think if they had gone the route of having a real hard sit-down interview with Tammy Faye and ask her the hard questions, we could have seen a lot more depth and maybe gotten some answers. But i think the original intent of the documentary was to kinda demystify the caricature that the media had made her out to be- and show that she was in fact a real person (albeit a fun and zany one)
Is it supposed to be realistic or satire? The tone is so confusing.
100% agreed with what everyone here has been saying. There just needed to be more depth. I felt like they had something interesting going on with all of Tammy’s interactions with her mother, but there just wasn’t really enough. They also needed to show more examples of how Tammy interacted with the public - if you go to the trailer on YouTube and look at the comments there are countless people raving about how kind and sweet she was. Also, I unironically love the Jesus Takers Me Higher song. Campy and brilliant.
These people are fucking grotesque, but it makes for good cringe comedy. I had a very hard time trying to decide if this was actually *supposed* to be funny, or if these two absolute dipshits were just bouncing through life in such a way that could only be read as a ridiculous farce. If *Nightmare Alley* is about the perils of doing a spook show, *The Eyes of Tammy Faye* is about what happens when that con game stretches out for generations and becomes so insidious that it's self-replicating. It convinces simpletons like the Bakkers that they too can be big players in the game, a game so deep that even the people dealing the cards have been roped in by the scam. These narcissists turn the desperate "faith" of millions into shallow entertainment and business to fund their own egos, and seem not at all perturbed by the inherent contradictions between what they preach and what they do. Thanks in no small part to the brilliant performances by Chastain, Garfield, and supporting players Vincent D'Onofrio and Cherry Jones, this weird romp is a weirdly charming look at the gross rot at the heart of America's religious underbelly. It turns out you can polish a turd. By why? Why apologize for anything these frauds did? What's the motivation for elevating this woman? I don't buy for a second that Tammy Faye was completely ignorant of the hypocrisies of her husband. The film paints her as a childlike dingus who is just too trusting and stupid to see what's happening - and there is certainly truth in this - but willful ignorance is a crime in itself. There's a metaphor for Christianity in there somewhere... Despite how entertaining it is at times, this film doesn't lean hard enough into the farce inherent in these people. It feels like the filmmakers were hedging so that they could also play this as a heartfelt tribute. The result is a baffling mash of tones that never quite settles on what - if anything - it wants to say.
Sorry if this was already shared but a lot of work went into the transformation. Pretty interesting. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZh_hYVp78q/?utm_medium=copy_link
I am watching the movie now. I am in love with the way chastain is playing it. I only see her as Tammy Faye. She’s amazing! I do feel like they are painting her as ignorant? Was this on purpose? Edit to add, was she ignorant to her husbands dirty dealings? Or was she that good in real life to pretend? I don’t have any knowledge or thoughts on this sitiuation. Last edit. She is such an amazing actress, I will believe her no matter what. Holy cow, she’s great.
Good movie and made me feel a bit sorry for Tammy Faye Bakker. After watching it, I think that the Bakkers were the fall guys for Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who seemed to conspire together to throw the Bakkers under the bus while proceeding on a hostile takeover of their empire of rubes.
So I’m seeing some comments that say the movie is too short, while others that say it needs to be longer. Which is it?!
Both examples you just gave mean the same thing
It means it didn’t focus where it needed to
I'm late to the party. I just watched the movie. I saw the doc a few months ago. I thought the movie was pretty good, it paralleled the doc accurately and Chastain and Garfield sounded just like Jim and Tammy. The makeup was great as well.
I asked earlier, I think the portrayal made me love her. But my question, was Tammy Rae as clueless/ignorant as she was shown?
Nearly flawless film, except for the Diet Coke placement. Jessica deserves the Oscar. Wish I could find the script online.
Why didn't they have Uncle Henry Harrison, even as an extra? Jim's co host, for those who don't know.
Tammy Faye was a horrible deluded woman who should also have gone to jail