Religion, music and scandal: Jessica Chastain seeks her first Oscar for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”

Telepreachers are an enormously successful phenomenon in much of the world. Although most religions have incorporated the media as part of their contact with people, the idea of the show and the television show remains associated with the definition of this specific figure. The telepreacher is — as the name implies — anyone who uses the media, mainly television, to get his preaching to the greatest number of people. The barriers between authenticity and fraud have moved a lot and the film The Eyes of Tammy Faye tells the story of a television preacher and singer who together with her husband reached the top and then fell sharply. The main role is played by Jessica Chastain.

The film, which Star+ has added to its catalog since Wednesday, April 6, begins with Tammy Faye's childhood in the small town of International Falls, Minnesota, in the 1950s. It shows her fascination with religion and how it led her to later connect with who would be her husband, Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield). Together they build enormous fame and power, dominating the terrain of telepreachers in the seventies and eighties. His television empire, however, began to show fissures, both personally and in the numbers of the business.

Bakker was very charismatic and Faye, in addition to the religious side, was a great singer: the show worked well until — announced by the film's opening montage — the scandal swept everything away. For viewers in the United States, the story is much better known than it is outside borders. This makes it perhaps more interesting for those who don't know what Tammy Faye's journey was like.

In recent years, the Oscar has shown a preference for actors who play real-life characters. In other words, importance is given to the comparison between what exists and the characterization for the film. Sometimes they are great performances, but often they are nothing more than hard imitations. Here the actress builds more than she copies and the result is a more complex and interesting human side.

Chastain wears good makeup when he plays Tammy Faye when he is young, and even better when the years go by. If the film doesn't win the Oscar for Best Actress, at least it has a good chance in the other category in which it competes, that of Best Makeup.

The actress has an excellent career, with several titles that are among the favorites of the public and critics. She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Crossed Stories (The Help) and Best Actress for Best Actress for Zero Dark Thirty, but she has other memorable roles such as Mom, Interstellar and Master Bet (Molly's Game). She also starred in the mini-series Scenes of a Marriage and has just filmed another, George & Tammy, where she plays country music singer Tammy Wynette.

Although Chastain arrives at this Oscar with that background and being the favorite, this year the fight is tougher than in other editions. We'll see if her role as telepreacher finally gives her the statuette.

Although Tammy Faye's Eyes does not detach itself from the rules of the genre and any viewer with some knowledge of cinema can recognize the influence of many backgrounds, the film achieves the objective of constructing a critical and at the same time pious view of its protagonist. In the background is the story of a woman who ascended, triumphed, fell and sought redemption. She is much more authentic and genuinely Christian than her husband. The film knows this and that is why it closes with an ambiguous final scene, full of emotion.

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