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Tammy Faye Messner never escaped her first husband.
She became a national punch line for her elaborate makeup and gaudy clothes and high-pitched voice.
Was there anything else to Tammy Faye underneath the sin and paint?
A new film argues the affirmative.
Perhaps my own religious background cramps my view here.
I was raised a Christian fundamentalist with a love of straight lines and black-or-white answers.
Tammy Fayes God was not my God.
Whereas I worshipped the Lord of scrubbed floorboards and modest apparel, Tammy preferred plush carpets and mink furs.
Parishioners gather around where she lies on the floor, praising the Lord for her presence.
Its an experience Chastains Tammy tries to re-create over and over again as an adult.
With a new platform, she is audacious and piteous at equal turns.
She dreams up new ministries while she fears the loss of her husbands affections.
Onscreen, the Bakkers newfound fame is threatened by Tammys naivete.
When Falwell tells Jim that his wife is a firecracker, its not a compliment.
The sexism Tammy Faye faced was real too and endemic to the modern Christian-right milieu in which she moved.
Despite her devotion, Tammy and her famously made-up face preferred no such proper role.
In the film, and in life, Tammy is the force propelling Jim to greater and greater heights.
Even in her abasement, Tammy Faye could inspire donations.
Its her, not Jim, the fans truly loved.
So far, so sympathetic.
But were here because Tammy, and her first husband, fell dramatically from grace.
While Tammy bought furs, her husband Jim got up to some financial high jinks and worse.
The Justice Department declined to prosecute, but the hammer would eventually fall.
In 1989, Jim wasconvictedof 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy.
Jim, meanwhile, is back on TV, the same old snake-oil salesman.
The Bakker story was headline news in the 80s and early 90s.
At best, Tammy relished her wealth without questioning its origins.
The film wavers between the two possibilities.
Jim hid the worst of his misdeeds from her, it suggests, and Tammy didnt ask many questions.
She believed in his vision and helped him sell it to the end.
Tammy was something of both, in her way.
But in the process of humanizing Tammy, the film sanctifies her.
Whats good for the girlboss is rarely good for anyone else.
Tammy was more than a caricature, but that doesnt mean she was a heroine.
Fundamentalists love to find fault, at least in other people.
That tendency can make a person a poor critic.
Because it is based on true events, there is an expectation that it will be an accurate story.
But because it is told literally through Tammy, an unreliable narrator, its not quite the truth either.
A film doesnt have to be one thing or the other, truth or fiction.
The search for purity is another fundamentalist impulse.
Greed might not be Jim Bakkers greatest sin.
Evidence suggests hes guilty of much worse, an offense the film downplays.
A woman kept calling, she said.
ThePTL Clubs on-air receptionists call her the shrieker.
Bakker says the sex was consensual, the same story that Bakker the character tells Tammy in the film.
Tammy, for her part, seemed to accept Bakkers word on the alleged assault and on other matters.
The lies had somehow become truth in peoples minds, she complained.
God can love Tammy, but can we?
The film wants us to try.
Tammys real willingness to buck the fanatics in her orbit makes her a timely figure.
To be a woman in public is to invite commentary, much of it harsh.
Yet Tammys infallibility is what feels most relevant of all.
The girlboss eventually lost her shine, if indeed she ever possessed it.
Today, were used to icons who fail us.
To borrow from Scripture, none is righteous; no, not one.
