‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ Review: As Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain Put a Human Face on the Infamous Saga of Televangelism
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticIn “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain play Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the self-styled Christian TV personalities who did more than anyone else to mold televangelism into a game-changing, culture-shaking, credit-card-maxing industry/cult/diversion. The movie, which is a ticklishly fascinating rise-and-fall saga, was directed by Michael Showalter, who almost always makes comedies (“The Big Sick,” “The Lovebirds,” “Wet Hot American Summer”), so you might expect him to treat the Bakker saga as a delicious slice of kitsch — which, in a sense, it was.There’s a bit of that, but Showalter is up to something more sly, and maybe more artful.