I never did see the documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye on which this film is based, and I'm sure my thoughts would be richer if I had, but here we are.
One of the issues I have with the film itself is that it doesn't really let us in on what is going on with Jim Bakker and his swindling deals. The Eyes of Tammy Faye sort of takes Tammy Faye's perspective, and since she didn't concern herself with Jim's dealings, his sexual assaults, and his (was this real?) homosexual affairs, we learn absolutely nothing about any of them. This feels weird; I felt sort of robbed of the explanation for the Bakkers' downfall, and because this was left out we really didn't get to see Tammy Faye's responses to any of this. It just feels like a big chunk of the story is missing. A character played by Sam Jaeger appears in act two, and I swear I still don't know who he was supposed to be other than a rich man. (I just googled it. He was playing Roe Messner, whom Tammy Faye married right after divorcing Jim Bakker. The film makes it seem like she's just hanging out by herself in a tiny apartment.)
The other result of leaving out Jim Bakker's shady deals is that the real villain of the film turns out to be none other than Jerry Falwell, who is a complete asshole in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. I have nothing bad to say about that. It's clear in this movie that Falwell and Pat Robertson are calculating, wealth-amassing figures exploiting their tax-exempt status and attempting to influence U.S. American politics; what they are not is spiritual leaders. (It is insane to me that these men who run businesses that are exempt from U.S. American taxes can simultaneously claim to be somehow oppressed. Literally the government lets you work without paying taxes and you're oppressed???)
Anyway, I had fun, and I was too young to remember much of what goes on in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, so I learned things.
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