What could have been a by-the-numbers biopic, The Eyes of Tammy Faye luckily swirls around this trap due to some magnificent performances by Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield.
Read our full review below:
The biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye is an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and 80s, Tammy Faye 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.
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Tammy Faye was legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire.
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye See More Thanks To The Actors
The Eyes of Tammy Faye just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival with some good reactions coming from Canada. It’s now about to hit theatres and I can only agree with those reactions.
I didn’t know anything about these people, the story or their television channel. I just saw this silly looking picture of Chastain and Garfield when the film was still announced to release 2020, but then the pandemic happened and the film got delayed, now we’re here, I’ve seen The Eyes of Tammy Faye and now know about Jim Bakker, Faye and their christian television channel.
The film definitely is very performance driven, Jessica Chastain — who confirmed that this is a project close to her heart, as she tried to bring this to life for a long time — fully disappears in her role. She swings in like a whirlwind and delivers a silly, sometimes over the top, yet heartfelt and emotional performance. She will for sure get some Awards love. She is accompanied by Andrew Garfield, who plays Faye‘s husband Jim Bakker. While he also gets some more silly scenes, especially at the start of the film, his performance is a lot more subtle and calm, but he also gets some — awards friendly— big emotionally charged rage scenes.
Besides the performances, the film still sets itself atop of the latest standard biopics, who suffer from a overlong runtime and bland filmmaking all around. Thanks to the solid directing of Michael Showalter, the film manages to avoid this trap. The Eyes of Tammy Faye has some fast and entertaining editing and is most importantly well paced, making it an all around great watch, even without the performances.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye clearly shines through the exciting performances of both Chastain and Garfield, while it manages to not fall in the category of boring and uninspired biopics, due to some great directing of Michael Showalter.
3,5/5
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is written by Abe Sylvia and directed by Michael Showalter. It stars: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Fredric Lehne, Louis Cancelmi and Vincent D‘Onofrio.
What do you guys think? Are you planning to watch it? Let’s discuss everything in the comments down below and on our Twitter.
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