Won an Oscar for Best Actress

"Tami Fay's Eyes" .. Jessica Chastain shines in the story of the exploitation of religion

• Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield star as Tammy and Jim Faye Baker in the film.

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In The Eyes of Tammy Faye we see Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as Tammy and Jim Faye Baker, two characters who transformed religion into an industry that forever changed the rules of television.

The film directed by Michael Showalter tells the story in the traditional mold of biographical stories, which is the mold of rise and fall, and thus does not add anything new.

Showalter is new to drama, and his specialty is comedy, as he is behind The Big Sick, The Lovebirds and Wet Hot American Summer, and we expected him to treat his material lightly, which is what happened in many parts of the movie, but there was enough drama, it gave the movie some weight. .

Showalter knows that people view the Bakers as comic, especially the look of Tami Faye, who is hidden behind a layer of make-up so exaggerated, that she looks more like a clown.

The story took place in the seventies until the end of the eighties, and was mentioned in a documentary film directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Berbato in 2000.

This film, written by Abe Sylvia, was adapted from Showalter from the aforementioned documentary, with the exact same title, but Showalter made a shrewd decision to stay away from the comic, and injected a measure of seriousness so that the viewer understood the motives of the two characters for the first time rather than mocking them, since their story came out in the open.

Cautious entertainment performance

Chastain and Garfield's performances are very entertaining, yet cautious, and layered when the two characters realize they've done something more than they can control.

The pair are bargainers of the highest order, and the film uses their vulgar greed to tell an American story of how religion became a television industry.

The film begins in 1960 when Jim and Tami meet at a Minneapolis Bible College, where the former has stardom.

He's 20 but deeply immersed in the Bible, and when he gives religious sermons on stage, Jim wants to draw people in by focusing on himself.

Jim asks students: Why is religious propaganda always somber and threatening its adherents with punishment for non-compliance?

Why is religion not about reward now?

Jim preaches to Tammy in the front rows.

The fact is that the industry - ie, TV evangelism - exists to this day, and the star preacher today is Joel Osteen who is widely regarded as Tami Fay's heir and husband.

The difference is that Austin developed his sermons a lot, and he became directly linking them to success in life, unlike Jim, whose sermons led him to the bank and then to prison.

Fun, spontaneous and energetic, Tami Fay falls in love with Jim, and bonds herself closely to him.

Tammy is no less than Jim, she is a natural actress, can manipulate her voice, and create child-oriented characters.

And since she's attracted a children's audience, it definitely means that she's attracted their families, but the idea here is that Tammy herself is a captivating character, whose creativity reaches her climax when she performs the voice of a doll.

public program

The two become mobile missionaries with no money and only a car, but as soon as they leave a hotel in Virginia they come across a channel called the Christian Television Network, a fledgling channel run by Pat Robertson (Gabriel Olds), who hires them to host a children's program about Bible stories.

Channel C employs a program called “The 700 Club,” which is a major nightly talk show.

The show originally started from a fundraising initiative where in 1962 700 channel members donated $10 to keep the channel running, but Jim is talented enough to turn the show into a religious comedy, and he's not just a host, he's the star of the show, and he becomes addicted to it.

As well as Tami Fay, she insists on being part of the channel, and this is one of the first demands that reveals her independence from her husband.

When the channel gives the couple their own program, they become pioneers in television evangelism.

Thus we see in the film that religion turns into a program satisfactory to the masses.

Little by little it turns kind of crazy, especially when their private lives interfere with part of the program, and Tami does not hesitate to inform her husband that she is pregnant in front of the camera.

personal details

Why do we watch this movie and not be satisfied with the documentary?

The reason is simple, because this version connects us to the two characters more than that movie, and gives us more personal details about their lives and what they did and why they did it?

Tami Fay is the one who fills the spiritual center of the film, if you will, she is constantly evolving throughout the work, which is an advantage of the drama version over its documentary counterpart.

She begins by broadcasting an innocence like the innocence of the late Donna Reed in the fifties, then gives her voice to a doll, then she is a housewife who discovers she is tired of the daily routine, and wants to return to fame, then she is the religious feminist who challenges men, then she invites Steve Peters (Randy Heavens) to dialogue with her in front of The masses, a man with AIDS because of his sexual perversion - and this is a taboo in a religious program - and regardless of whether their tears for him are real or crocodile tears, and we say if they are Tammy Faye's tears, they are crocodile tears that have a great deal of credibility, so to speak.

In short, Chastain finds the complex heart of a woman with a lot of true love, but she loves fame too much.

This is Jessica Chastain's best performance, and she deservedly won the Best Actress Oscar.

The preacher..a thief

Andrew Garfield plays the role in a discreet manner, showing his high moral character, but he does not hide his desire for fame, and owning a house as big as that of a channel manager.

Then the problems of the spouses begin when the husband's morals deviates and he becomes a thief.

• 1960, the year from which the film begins, when Jim and Tami meet at an evangelical college in Minneapolis.

• The director knows that people view the Bakers as comic, especially the look of Tami Faye, who is hidden behind a layer of make-up so exaggerated, that it makes her look more like a clown.

• In the film, religion turns into a program satisfactory to the masses.

Little by little it turns kind of crazy, especially when their private lives interfere with part of the program.

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