ROVIN’ AND RAVIN’ WITH MIKE
Copyright © 2000 by Michael Segers, All rights reserved
Brought to you by Peanut.org
Our Not So Fair Ladies
Narrator - RuPaul
Directed by - Fenton
Bailey, Randy Barbato
Runtime - 79 minute
Rated - PG-13
Saving Grace
Grace Trevethyn -
Brenda Blethyn
Matthew - Craig
Ferguson
Dr. Bamford -
Martin Clunes
China MacFarlane -
Jamie Foreman
Vince - Bill Bailey
Nicky - Valerie
Edmond
Harvey - Tristan
Sturrock
Vicar – Leslie
Phillips
Quentin – Clive
Merrison
Honey - Diana Quick
Margaret - Phyllida
Law
Mrs. Hopkins -
Denise Coffey
Directed by –
Nigel Cole
Written by Mark
Crowdy, Craig Ferguson
Runtime, 94
minutes, Rated R for drug references and language
The queen (and I’m not
referring to the narrator) is not dead. Long
live the queen, Tammy Faye Bakker. Big-haired
ladies everywhere, rejoice! And
crabby old movie critics, too! Documentaries
are a rare breed in today’s movie megaplexes, and this is one of the rarest,
the story of a good old girl born (so her family claims) with a neat manicure,
who rose to a dubious stardom as half of a pair of Christian puppeteers, later
media moguls, then sank into oblivion after her husband and fellow evangelist
Jim was sent to jail for embezzling funds sent in by true believers. (And here, I should emphasize, as she does, that she was
never charged with anything.) But,
the pore thang then got herself hitched to a gentleman who got himself sentenced
to two years for fraud.
In the 1980’s, the Bakkers were a sort of guilty
pleasure for people who watched them as rejects from a Flannery O’Connor
story. Some Christians were
horrified by the glitz and greed, but Tammy Faye always had a kind of earthy
honesty about her, which coupled with a natural chemistry with television, gave
her much more strength than her husband.
In fact—to my surprise—I was captivated by the lady throughout this
documentary. There are a lot of
predictable words—a survivor, an American original—even, perhaps, a reject
from a Flannery O’Connor story. But, I had the feeling that she has done her share of
suffering (including drug addiction during the time that she and her husband
were at their most famous), and expected her to belt out “I Will Survive” at
any moment. That anthem of disco
tackiness (prominently featured in the current film, The Replacements)
might explain a subtext of this film, narrated by RuPaul.
(Who would ever have believed that the two most famous drag queens in
America would be two Georgia boys, RuPaul and The Lady Chablis of Midnight in
the Garden of Good and Evil?)
Unlike most televangelists, Tammy Faye was always
accepting of gays. In the
documentary, there is even a clip from one of her shows of her interviewing a
minister who had HIV, and she treats him with a compassion that was unusual
anywhere back in those early days of the disease.
So, who is Tammy Faye, some little league celebrity who is aiming for
seventeen minutes of fame, with this authorized, perhaps sanitized documentary?
Or, is she one of those people who genuinely make us consider the
possibility of angels in our midst of whom we are not aware?
This documentary leaves us with rather mixed reviews, because there is a
distinct impression that the filmmakers are much more comfortable with
celebrities than with angels.
No matter how veddy, veddy Anglophile you may be,
you have to admit that Saving Grace has no more redeeming social value than an old
Cheech and Chong movie. I just
don’t see the humor in smoking pot, not even when the pot smokers are British
women of a certain age who sound as if they could have voiced some of the
characters in Chicken Run. I’m
not just riding some wave of political correctness.
Many years ago, I never got the point of Lee Marvin’s famous portrayal
of a drunk in Cat Ballou.
It is too easy to get a laugh, either from a drunk staggering or from a
pot head pigging out. In fact, as I
watched this film, it was as if it were filmed in some sort of cinematic
equivalent of hypertext, with links to other films that over the past thirty
years or so have tired to convince us that there is something funny about
marijuana.
There is not so much a plot as a situation.
Grace learns on her husband’s death, that he has left her nothing but
debts. Her foreman Matthew convinces her to grow marijuana in the greenhouse, in
which she has always grown orchids. And
the locals look on, somewhere between complacent and conspiratorial.
It all reminds me of Waking Dead Devine, with less appealing
scenery. It takes a village to turn a moral dilemma into a comic
affirmation. But, it’s hot outside these days, and Blethvyn makes it a joy to
sit in a cool dark place watching Grace survive. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything for anyone if I say
that Grace neither sells her produce nor gets evicted. But, the ending feels a little untrue to the rest of the
material. Appearances, my dears,
must be maintained. Now, who’s
for tea? And, I do mean tea,
not that brew that is consumed with such gusto in this film.
OK, for perhaps the best moments of this column,
the second opinions. Ted Murphy of BaselineHollywood.com shares some background
information about “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” in his review—
www.baseline.hollywood.com/screen/coming/tammyfaye.htm
Rose Cooper, one of the Three Black Chicks, three
of my favorite ladies who review films, comes through with an insightful
contrast between American and British culture and drug use shown by this film—
www.3blackchicks.com/bamssavegrace.html
Keep your feet dry, your heart full of noble
thoughts, and, to be honest, a copy of the very fair My Fair Lady (1964) in
your VCR. Now, that is a loverly thought, indeed!