The Eyes Have It

Editor's Note: For the fifth consecutive year, Dawn and The Husband will be spending a few nights attending the Toronto International Film Festival, known to the locals as TIFF. While they can now proudly call themselves seasoned veterans at this madness, CoVid-19 has altered how films will be screened this year. While TIFF is offering in-person and drive-in experiences all over the downtown core, neither one of them is yet ready to sit in a theatre with other potential Delta vectors, even though every patron is masked and vaxxed. The roster, while not nearly as robust as in previous years, still offers some wonderful choices so they have increased their number of films to view to six.  Because they are old and, as previously stated congregating in a movie theatre is anathema in this still raging pandemic time, all films will be screened from the comfort of their living room complete with popcorn, a few homemade treats, and lights appropriately dimmed. The only phone calls that will be answered during the viewing of these world premieres are from Molly or Talia because grandchildren rule. TIFF still serves as a tremendous distraction from the world's ills and allows for some much-needed escapism during these tumultuous times. The next several posts will focus exclusively on TIFF and will offer very quick bullet point reviews for the movies seen. You've all been warned.

If you would have asked me before this year's edition of TIFF if I would have even considered watching a movie about former 80's icon and fallen evangelist, Tammy Faye Bakker, I would have sent you packing to the deepest ends of purgatory. As someone with enough mileage on her to have lived through that bizarre period in history, I thought that I knew more than enough about Tammy and her grifter husband Jim to last me two lifetimes. As founders of the Praise the Lord (PTL) network, these two swindlers preached the gospel of prosperity and greed all whilst bilking their gullible followers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. As the Reagan Revolution brought together fiscal conservatives and the Christian right, the Bakkers were gleefully lining their own pockets while helping to pioneer the over-the-top televangelist style of entertainment. While Jerry Falwell Sr., Pat Robertson, and Jimmy Swaggart were all railing against gays, liberals, and feminists, the Bakkers were building theme parks and Tammy Faye was at the centre of it all. With her weird outfits, bizarre make-up, and over-the-top perkiness Tammy Faye Bakker was the butt of thousands of jokes and late-night monologues. I honestly thought that I knew her story.

I was wrong.

In 2000, a sympathetic documentary was made about Tammy Faye that pushed past all of the camp and trashy nonsense and revealed her to be a true believer in the teachings of Jesus who fell for a charlatan. The documentary is credited as source material for the new film The Eyes of Tammy Faye starring an unrecognizable Jessica Chastain. It was Tammy who talked about helping the poor and building houses for children with disabilities and for women with abusive spouses. While the Falwells of the universe were relishing in the "gay plague" of AIDS and pushing women into the background, Tammy Faye was inviting AIDS patients onto PTL to talk about their disease to try and help educate her viewers. It was Tammy who innately understood her God and the quest to make the world a better place all while her husband was swindling the flock. Tammy Faye certainly wasn't blameless. She was a narcissistic publicity hound who had problems with addiction to prescription drugs, but she was also far more interested in the religious part of her ministry than was her hypocrite of a husband.

We see the entire film through Tammy's eyes and Ms. Chastain expertly keeps the film from crossing over into the freakish. I honestly wanted to punch Andrew Garfield's pompous Jim in the face more than once as he used his false piety to build an empire. Keeping the focus strictly from Tammy's perspective gave the movie a sense of enduring pathos and the viewer really feels every emotion that she does when the house of cards crumbles. Ms. Chastain is a revelation behind pounds of make-up and latex and she managed to do the impossible for me, which was to make Tammy Faye Bakker a sympathetic character. This performance is a guaranteed Oscar nomination.

While The Eyes of Tammy Faye does feel a bit like Oscar bait, the pathos and care of Jessica Chastain elevate the film to another level. 

Dawn and The Husband give The Eyes of Tammy Faye two YUPS.

**Note. We are taking a few days off for Yom Kippur. See you back here on Friday.