Growing up, I didn’t know too much about Tammy Faye Bakker besides the caricature versions of her splashed on magazines and joked about on Saturday Night Live. My parents weren’t overly religious so I wasn’t exposed to very many figures in that world, especially a gregarious one with make-up that was considered overdone in the 80s.

From the first trailer that I saw, I knew I wanted to see this; mostly because Jessica Chastain is in it and I’m not sure there’s a movie of hers that I won’t watch. The trailer itself was adorable and she nailed the northern Minnesota accent effortlessly, as with any role she takes on.

The movie is a sweet version of this outgoing, seemingly larger than life lady who steadily walked a line of wanting to love everyone and her desire to live a lavish lifestyle to make up for her extremely humble beginnings. I learned about her growing up as an almost dirty little secret of her mother’s first marriage that wasn’t welcome in the church until she showed up one day speaking in tongues. She stayed outspoken throughout life; going to bible college where she met Jim Bakker and leaving school to marry him.

Being her husband’s grand cheerleader, she urged him to follow his dreams of being, as it turns out, a televangelist and generally thief of church donations to fund his (and Tammy’s) extremely lavish lifestyle. At one point in the movie, they referenced making about $400K a year in the early 90s – a quick little money inflation calculator puts them making close to the equivalent of $800K today. YIKES. Nothing says thank you Jesus quite like fur coats and palatial lake homes.

And ok, her over dramatic eye make-up is a bit off putting. And her intense belting of gospel songs made me lean back a bit in my seat, but by the end of the film, I was actually pulling for her. Despite whatever fraud she was or was not involved in with her husband, she really seemed to care about people; all people. I had no idea that she welcomed a man on her show who was afflicted with AIDs; especially at a time when most people were terrified of the disease. That was not only shocking for tv show, but unheard for a religious program and she brought him on proudly and made sure people knew that real Christians love all humans.

The movie ended around the time of all their legal troubles – Jim Bakker and her second husband Roe Messner were both sent to prison on various charges, including fraud. Somehow Tammy Faye escaped any implications in either of her spouses extracurricular illegal activities. The movie tiptoes around all of that – alleging that Jim Bakker had same sex attractions, affairs, and their marriage was not the traditional Christian household viewers saw every week. However, it stops just short of insinuating that Tammy Faye was anything but the small town girl who just wanted to bring happiness and joy to everyone around her.

I was disappointed we didn’t see more of her relationship with her children or her life after her husbands went away, in the time before she passed away from cancer in 2007. The movie felt a lot like the paintings on her face; a pretty picture covering up an ordinary person.

Grade: B-