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Had it not been for the performance of Jessica Chastain 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' would have fallen flat on its face. Andrew Garfield as Jim Baker is completely miscast. He was an embarrassment more than anything else. His thick SoCal accent made his performance barely believable. The picture did, however ,give us a glimpse of, embellished perhaps, the soap opera lives and issues that were key ingredients of the PTL movement, its rise and fall. It highlighted the hypocrisy of the Bakers and other Christian right leaders who ultimately brought down the PTL including the powerful Jerry Falwell whose position in the Christian right movement was temporarily jeopardized.

Chastain gave the picture its only major spark, however, and made the whole PTL odyssey seem interesting to revisit. She captured Tammy Faye's spirit beautifully.

Sadly, this cinematic piece of garbage was Norma Shearer's swan song. That's the most upsetting thing about this picture that probably never should have been made in the first place. It's also regrettable that the great George Cukor signed on to direct this mess. Even his magic couldn't save the film from itself. It's a simple plot, Robert Taylor trying to score points with Shearer as she fends off the advances of her ex played by George Sanders. The only saving grace is the reliable Elizabeth Patterson who, in my opinion, steals the movie from these three Hollywood heavyweights.

Bad writing, mediocre direction (sorry George) and a terrible script are responsible for these awful performances. They did the best they could, I suppose, given what they had to work with. 'Her Cardboard Lover' is a waste of 93 minutes which we'll never recoup.

Let me start by saying I love Laura Linney and view her as one of the finest actors today. However, this long winded show, which went on way too long, was not one of her finest hours. It centers around a woman with terminal cancer (Linney) trying to live her life as normal as possible. There's a lot to be said for that. However, she uses the 'c' card to justify mean spirited, boundary breaking (especially with her son Adam) things that made her character, Cathy, not a very likable person. She treated her husband abominably while overstepping her role as the mother of a teenage boy. Yes, her heart might have been in the right place most of the time, but her actions were off putting quite frequently to say the least. I wouldn't have wanted her as a friend.

The series, as I said earlier, went on longer than it should have and began to derail, often becoming far fetched. Linney's performance was okay. Oliver Platt who played Paul, her beleaguered husband, was excellent. Kudos also to Cynthia Nixon, John Benjamin Hickey, who played her alternate lifestyle brother, Sean, Gabourney Sidibe who the family practically adopted, Gabriel Basso who was her son, Adam, and the amazing Phyllis Somerville, Cathy's neighbor, teacher and confidante. We loved her canine, Thomas, as well.

There were others too who enhanced the show. The sad part is given all this great talent, the final product should have been better than it was.