It's amazing, given the huge grip it has on politics in the US, that there haven't been more films about Evangelical Christian leaders.
Over the years, prominent Evangelists like Jimmy Swaggart, Morris Cerrullo, Ted Haggard, Tony Alamo and Jerry Falwell Jr have been engulfed by scandal and provided plenty of material for filmmakers wishing to examine their world through fact or fiction.
But one of the most extraordinary stories was that of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
Founders of the PTL (Praise The Lord) broadcasting network, their rise and fall was so spectacular it was always ripe for a movie.
Now the New Jersey comedian and director Michael Showalter has obliged with 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield.
Based on the 2000 documentary of the same name from Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato which was narrated by RuPaul, its two leads are perfectly cast in a movie that peels away the gloss of America's tele-evangelism industry but doesn't really dig too deep.
Working from a screenplay by Abe Sylvia, Showalter begins with Chandler Head's young Tammy Faye LaValley being forbidden by her parents from attending her local Baptist Church in Minnesota's International Falls.
Her mother, Cherry Jones' Rachel Glover is divorced and Tammy Faye is told her presence in church is frowned upon because it remind the congregation of the shame of having had a broken marriage.
Rachel is, however, allowed to attend because she can play the piano.
This doesn't deter Tammy Faye, though.
She sneaks into the church during one service and approaches the minister so she can become born again, going into convulsions during the ceremony.
Convinced that God speaks through her, Tammy Faye goes on to attend the North Central Bible College in Minneapolis where Jessica Chastain's adult version falls for Andrew Garfield's confident fellow student and aspiring preacher, Jim Bakker.
They have a whirlwind romance and marry - a move that is met with all the world weary scepticism that Tammy Faye's mum can muster.
Even in the early days of the marriage, Jim is preoccupied with the trappings of wealth, turning up at her family home in a swish car with leather interiors and insisting God wanted them to have it to use as a vehicle to spread the Gospel.
Armed with a big suitcase and some puppets which Tammy Faye voices to engage children and draw their parents into church, they abandon college and head out on the road to spread God's word.
A chance encounter in a motel car park with an employee of the prominent Tele-Evangelist Pat Robertson leads to the Bakkers landing a gig on his Christian Broadcasting Network on a show aimed primarily at children.
Jim, however, has other ambitions and talks Gabriel Olds' Pat Robertson into giving him a late night talk show called 'The 700 Club,' interviewing public figures like Colonel Sanders while Tammy Faye undergoes her first pregnancy.
Not long after the birth of their daughter, the Bakkers are invited to Pat Robertson's mansion for a poolside barbecue where they meet for the first time Vincent D'Onofrio's powerful Evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Sr.
Observing Jim and the other husbands gathered around a table with Falwell separate from their wives and children, Tammy Faye cannot contain herself.
She pulls up a chair and joins in the discussion much to the irritation of Falwell who is making an impassioned plea to his fellow Tele-Evangelists to use their influence to oppose the Democrats and the adoption of liberal values.
Tammy Faye disagrees with Falwell's disdain for the gay community, countering that in her view they are all God's children.
She is taken to task by Jim, though, for daring to challenge the views of someone as influential as Jerry Falwell.
Struck by how much more wealthy the Robertsons are, she persuades Jim that they can aspire to such a lifestyle and have what they have.
The PTL network is born and rapidly grows with Jim and Tammy Faye's glossy mix of magazine style show interviews, music and cookery items with passages of Scripture proving a big hit.
It is so successful that they get the big house in South Carolina and mink coats but soon the Bakkers start to expand their reach to 24 hour satellite broadcasting and creating a theme park.
Tammy Faye's singing is so popular, she records an album with Mark Wystrach's Nashville producer Gary S Paxton.
However as the investment pours in, so do the media queries about Jim's financial dealings.
Falwell also continues to circle around their empire, showing disapproval of Tammy Faye's more inclusive brand of religious belief.
And with Jim no longer "snuggling up" to her at night, cracks start to show in the marriage and questions of sexual impropriety also surface.
Showalter's movie is powered by two outrageously entertaining central performances by Chastain and Garfield which capture the unwaivering conviction of prominent Evangelical figures and their followers that they are doing God's work.
With her homely Minnesotan country girl accent and breezy optimism, Chastain plays Tammy Faye as a strong willed and kind hearted soul who believes in a more inclusive brand of Christianity than her fellow Tele Evangelists.
As the film wears on, though, Garfield plays up Jim's unhealthy love of wealth, his cavalier attitude to finances and the sexual hypocrisy which will eventually lead to their downfall.
While the film, like the 2000 documentary, ultimately paints Tammy Faye as a brave and maverick voice in the rigidly conservative, male dominated world of Evangelical Christianity, you feel Showalter's movie would rather be a light hearted romp than a deep examination of a movement that holds a lot of sway in US society.
The film's most illuminating and amusing moment for those not au fait with the Bakkers' story is Tammy Faye's groundbreaking interview on PTL with the AIDS sufferer and gay Christian pastor Steve Pieters, played by Randy Havens.
The interview is an act of defiance that flies in the face of Falwell, Robertson and the other Evangelical leaders focused on building up their clout in the Republican Party and waging culture wars.
Even here, though, you feel Showalter's movie should be doing more to examine this very white brand of male dominated Christian conservatism and its attempt to impose its values on American society.
By pulling its punches, 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye,' while amusing and enjoyable, doesn't quite have the impact of Craig Gillespie's more withering examination of another very American scandal 'I, Tonya'.
When the Bakkers' downfall comes, though, they land with a hell of a bump - although again the director is unwilling to pick over the details of the allegations of sexual assault and homosexuality that were levelled at Jim.
Showalter only scratches the surface in his depiction of how Tele-Evangelists milk viewers for cash to fund their lavish lifestyles and dig themselves out of deep financial holes.
He decides to keeps the drama frothy.
That is how 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' prefers to roll.
As for the rest of the cast, D'Onofrio is on top form as Jerry Falwell Snr who is portrayed as a devious architect in their downfall, as well as pompous, narrow minded and arrogant.
Head, Wystrach, Havens, Olds, Louis Cancelmi as Jim's adviser at PTL Richard Fletcher and Frederic Lehne as Tammy Faye's kind hearted stepfather Fred Grover provide solid support.
Cherry Jones is good value, though, as her mother Rachel, depicting her as a tough, modest old woman bruised by her experience of how her fellow Christians viewed her divorce and eager to keep her daughter grounded.
Energetically edited by Mary Jo Markey with Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh's Oscar nominated make up and hairstyling worthy of the praise it has received, the film is ultimately Chastain's.
If she walks away with the Best Actress statuette on Oscar night, who would hard argue against it?
Chastain rises to the occasion with a vivacious performance, with Garfield also deserving credit.
Ultimately the film could be a bit more probing but it is enjoyable nonetheless.
('The Eyes of Tammy Faye' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on February 4, 2022)
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