The eye-catching lipstick is permanent, says Tammy Faye Bakker (Jessica Chastain) in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and those huge fake eyelashes shown in close-up never go off. Director Michael Showalter skilfully covers himself: as grotesque as Tammy and husband Jim (Andrew Garfield) appear in this portrait of the legendary TV evangelist couple, this is how they were.
The feature film, based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, shows the rise and fall of the Bakkers, who secretly paid for their luxurious lifestyle in the 1970s and 1980s with donations from their huge, gullible audience. Faye would later reinvent himself as the figurehead of the LGBTI community. Showalter’s neatly arranged biography is as ordinary as it is predictable, but the pace is nice and Chastain disarms and moves in her chameleonic lead.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Drama
★★★ ☆☆
Directed by Michael Showalter
With Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio.
126 min., in 15 halls.
