The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Girl Boss Chastain

Michael Showwalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye joins the latest trend of adapting a documentary into a dramatized biopic film. Although it’s a narrative focused on the iconic Tammy Faye, it is a 2 hour Jessica Chastain showcase. Sadly a focus on the actress known to play girl bosses doesn’t save this lackluster film that barely digs into its main subject.

Following traditional biopic structure, the life of Tammy Faye follows her childhood fascination with religion to her marriage to Jim Bakker. Chastain plays Tammy as outspoken and progressive in male-dominated spaces. She comes off as a pure soul believing in all causes.

One important moment to highlight that showcases the beam of light Tammy Faye is would be the recreation of the famous interview with Steve Pieters that recognized the existence of AIDS. It was controversial at the time because no one in Faye’s line of work would talk about it. It showcases the emotional power and purity she had of just wanting “to love people.”

The image rehabilitation doesn’t work too well here due to the lack of passion. It relies heavily on makeup and costumes to tell the story. It feels like a sizzle reel of Tammy Faye’s life with no depth. No other character is explored deeply as Faye and just floats around her. Andrew Garfield as Jim Bakker is severely underutilized.

Jessica Chastain is doing the best work of her career with a deserving SAG win to showcase. Unfortunately, the film offers no compelling argument for why audiences should watch this instead of the documentary.