George & Tammy

Chastain projects fragility and toughness; Shannon can be equally terrifying and tender. It is very much their rodeo. ... Some themes of being taken advantage of are hammered home more than necessary, but the heart of the story is firmly in the palm of Chastain and Shannon’s hands. Whether showcasing the good or bad times, “George & Tammy” is a triumph.

The whole of it is enlivened by incredible work from Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon, who exchange show-stopping singing moments and come packaged with a strong sense of passion, along with a knowing, exciting taste for sincere kitsch.

The performances of Michael Shannon as George and Jessica Chastain as Tammy are dazzling and the chemistry between them sparky. The dialogue, which could have been cliched, is sharp and lean and the singing good (Chastain and Shannon had vocal training for the series).

The necessary biopic parts are all here. But George & Tammy is buoyed remarkably by its two terrific leads, with Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain embodying the best and worst about the country stars as both distinct individuals and two people in a loving but combative celebrity relationship.

Despite its occasional flaws, George & Tammy manages to reinvigorate a worn-out type of love story and the musical biopic. It’s a surprising and delightful feat in our current landfill of miniseries about real-life events, anchored by two electric performances.

The period details are gorgeous, gaudy, kitsch and vivid, but most of the screen time is used to linger on Chastain and Shannon’s faces in closeup. The show is more concerned with the intimate details of love and despair than the lure of the spotlight, and it is stronger for it.

Even if the broader outlines of its story are reminiscent of other music-focused films and shows, what makes this portrait so watchable is the shading brought to it by Chastain and Shannon. They show up in every episode with every color of paint on their palette, and display an effortless sense of control over every single stroke.

Mr. Shannon's starkly emotional performance and Ms. Chastain's generous one encourage us to root for them, which we do, even when we know where things are going.

The lively, and splendidly acted, George & Tammy limited series makes real the supposed clichés of alcoholism, addiction, heartache, and unquenchable love that fuel so much of the Nashville music scene. [5 - 18 Dec 2022, p.5]

It lingers on the way Tammy and George simply look each other, and Chastain and Shannon speak volumes through the way their eyes light up or darken or soften around one another. That both turn in exceptional performances should come as little surprise (even if their impressive singing voices do). But in scenes together, the intensity of their chemistry seems to show each of them in a whole new light.

“George & Tammy” is at times overwrought, and the dialogue occasionally veers into soap opera territory. But, thanks in large part to Shannon and Chastain delivering powerful, fiery, larger-than-life performances suitable for the characters they’re portraying, it’s a compelling period-piece melodrama, filled with impressive musical performances.

“George & Tammy” may not conquer that formula in full, but it manages to breathe new life into a pair of interconnected souls who lived their art, for better and, frequently, for worse.

As biopics go, “George & Tammy” is better than most, beautifully acted, nicely filmed, full of music and not lacking for crazy, infamous events. But a series that claims to represent real historical events can lead one to wonder, distractedly, what truly happened and what was embellished or didn’t happen at all. ... For much of the six episodes, you may feel as if you’re watching a riff on “A Star Is Born.”

Reuniting Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, the series relies heavily on the actors’ own chemistry and the longevity of Jones and Wynette’s impassioned lyrics, rather than the strength of its own story. ... Sylvia and director John Hillcoat’s desire to recreate these defining moments and present them with their accompanying ballads holds the series back from ever reaching any further intimacy with Jones and Wynette.

As a story, “George & Tammy” follows familiar beats that have been covered with more economy in similar biopic feature films. It’s not a deeper or more resonant story because it’s told as a six-part series.

Unfortunately, Shannon and Chastain are burdened with a script that’s marred by uneven pacing and jarring leaps in time. ... It’s a testament to the immersive and deeply felt performances of its two leads that George & Tammy manages to bring its titular iconic figures to life.

It might also have been better if they talked less, too – writer Abe Sylvia seems to have got carried away with country lyrics to the point where lines as corny as “Fast is the only speed I know. I’ll take you any way you want to go” somehow made it into the mouths of actual people. Much better was when the camera lingered on the two leads neither singing nor spouting folk wisdom, but instead evincing a fierce chemistry.

With a six-part format, George & Tammy brings a more expansive twang to the fractious lives of country legends Wynette and George Jones, in a solid if unspectacular showcase for crooning stars Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon.

Shannon and Chastain give it their all, belting out their own vocals during full renditions of the couple’s country classics. They capture an arresting chemistry — a combination of big-screen bravado and raw sexual attraction rarely seen in modern entertainment — but on their own, they can’t help but repeat familiar beats in what amounts to a stretched-out movie covering the couple’s most well-known moments.

“George & Tammy” never takes on a coherent shape. It’s a greatest-hits album of Jones and Wynette anecdotes, some presented with style and some perfunctory or maudlin, strung together between songs. ... Whenever Chastain or Shannon is onscreen, however, the series is likely to hold your attention, even when nothing particularly interesting is going on.

George & Tammy is a lavish soap opera; a crooning, booze-soaked Nashville melodrama. Many of us might be surprised that Shannon and Chastain expended their considerable talents on such thin material. Perhaps the only fans that George & Tammy will find, then, are the people who were already enraptured by its namesakes.