The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Look Away!

 

 

THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE (2021)

Directed by Michael Showalter

Searchlight/Disney Pictures, 126 minutes, PG-13 (sexual innuendos, greed)

 

 

 

What is the difference between The Joker and Tammy Faye Bakker? The Joker was honest about his intentions and had better makeup.

 

I can assure you my cheap joke is better than The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which should not be confused with a revealing 2000 documentary of the same name. Abe Sylvia used the latter to fashion a screenplay for this 2021 turkey, but he burnt the bird.  

 

In the 1980s, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were the most famous televangelists in the country. Out of curiosity, I tuned in a few times and couldn’t believe anyone would send money to such obvious charlatans. Their empire ultimately crumbled under the weight of scandal, debt, and lawsuits though incredulously, Jim Bakker has gotten a post-prison second act. The Eyes of Tammy Faye traces the rise, pinnacle, and fall of the Bible-thumping power couple.

 

One of the many problems of the film is grounded in trying to do too much. We see young Tammy (Chandler Head) seeking conversion, but being barred from entering the church because her mother, the pianist, is barely tolerated herself because she divorced her husband, a no-no among evangelicals in International Falls, Minnesota. But when a defiant Tammy enters on her own, falls to the floor, and begins speaking in tongues, she is proclaimed a miracle. From that point on, we are fed a steady diet of how Tammy loves people of all sorts and wants to bring them to Jesus–again not a popular thing among those hueing to the narrow path. And, a straight one; preachers admonished flocks to avoid homosexuals.  

 

We jump to 1960, when Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) and Tammy Faye LaValley ((Jessica Chastain) are in Bible college. They married the next year but even Rachel (Cherry Jones) pegged Jim as a huckster in pursuit of mammon, not souls. Should have listened to mama, Tammy. After small-time hustling, Jim ingratiated himself into the evangelical power circle of Jerry Falwell (Vincent D’Onofrio), Pat Robertson (Gabriel Olds), and Jimmy Lee Swaggart (Jay Huguley), an unholy a trinity. After some time as a Hee-Haw-like “act” on Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network–Tammy sang and did a puppet show–the two launched the PTL (Praise the Lord) Club on their own in 1976. At their height (mid-1980s), the Bakkers claimed to reach an audience of 20 million.

 

The movie casts Tammy as sincere and Jim as a materialistic conman. He was/is, but it’s hard to swallow the notion that Tammy was so naïve or so far under a Svengali spell as to deserve our pity. We do see her have a brief (fully-clothed) fling with record producer Gary Paxton (Mark Wystrach), though the film omits the fact that contractor/real estate developer Roe Messner–who bankrolled and built the Bakkers’ hokey Heritage USA theme park–ended up marrying Tammy Faye when she divorced Jim in 1992. By then, Jim was in prison, for bankruptcy fraud and the news was filled with stories of an affair Jessica Hahn–who claimed he raped her­–and rumors of gay flings—which he denies to this day–with his PTL assistant the Rev. Richard Fletcher (Louis Cancelmi) and a PTL director. Bakker was originally sentenced to 45 years in jail, but it was reduced to eight and he served less than five. (Guess who his parole lawyer was? None other than follow-the-money Alan Dershowitz!) The movie correctly shows how Falwell and Robertson double-crossed Bakker as a way to gain control of PTL. (I know; who could imagine such nice men doing such a thing?) Does it surprise you to learn that Huckster Jim was recently sued in Missouri for peddling fake Covid cures?

 

The film shows Tammy living in a down-market neighborhood, where she was the butt of jokes because of her red wigs and clown-like eyes. Not exactly! She married Messner but when he also went to jail for fraud, Falwell exiled Tammy Faye to Palm Springs–not exactly a ghetto–to keep her quiet. She died of cancer in 2007, by which time she was considered a champion of LGBT rights.

 

What in the name of all that is holy was Chastain thinking? She plays Tammy Faye as if she was Minnie Mouse. Memo: When life hands you a parody, don’t tamper with it! The wounded-daughter-seeks-mama’s-approval subplot is positively insipid.  Garfield the Cat could have done a better Jim Bakker than Andrew Garfield, who comes off as a dopier and greedier version of Mr. Rogers. His performance invites adjectives such as incompetent, maladroit, and amateurish.

 

I’ve written more words than this gobbler deserves. If I see a worse film than this in 2022, I will write down and eat Psalm 38:18: “I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.”

 

Rob Weir