Review of The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) by Claytaylor21 — 20 Jan 2022

Jessica Chastain is incredible in this movie. Her transformation both visually and personally is absolutely incredible. She perfectly captures the persona of Tammy Faye Baker, a women who is struggling with a manipulative husband and drug abuse but is still trying to remain a good and true person through it all.

Chastain even sings, which was a skill I had no idea she possessed. Easily one of the best performances of the year. Supporting her is Andrew Garfield who gives what may be his third best performance of the year, but is still very very strong.

The makeup and hair team outdid themselves on this one. Had I not known that it was Chastain and Garfield going into it I would've never figured it out. The prosthetics absolutely transform them and render them unrecognizable.

I also adored other technical aspects of the film. It's very appealing to look at. Unfortunately, the writing and story don't hold up to these other strong points. It's hard to figure out how the film's central relationship between Tammy Faye and Jim works when you are constantly cutting three years into the future.

There was also a ridiculous amount of product placement for Diet Coke that really bugged me. Additionally, there are a lot of religious themes that didn't work the best for me personally. These issues really hurt the movie's standing in my mind, but I still definitely think it's worth a watch if only for the powerhouse performance of Chastain.