Aimee Semple McPherson

Richard Rossi has produced a captivating spiritual film that cuts right into your soul and challenges our traditional stereotypes of religious leaders. I admire his perseverance in making this beautiful movie and it was compeling that he showed several facets of Aimee including, preacher, daughter, mother, wife and being human. Rossi portrays Ms. McPhearson with godly fire, passion and an unyielding love for God, but at the same time showing sensual,tender, sad and confused human emotions which all of us have experienced in one way or another. "Aimee Semple McPhearson" was touching, moving and caused me to weep in some parts of the movie. GREAT movie with various twists!

I just saw at industry screening in Hollywood, and Rossi's question and answer time was as interesting and compelling as this powerful film. This film about faith was made on faith, often Rossi showed up on set trusting someone would show up with film, food or whatever he needed. In each case, people would arrive saying, "God told me to bring you food, props, film, cameras." It is the most astonishing tale of a low budget project miraculously coming together since "El Mariachi."

There's more info on this at the film's official website, www.aimeesemplemcphersonmovie.com

Rossi's honesty about his life and personal struggles was equally moving. He made this movie because he had to, and that kind of love and vulnerability is why this film is so deeply effective in creating sympathy for the lead character.

Aimee Semple McPherson 2 hours and 15 minutes DVFeature Film Director: Richard Rossi

I had the opportunity to attend a preliminary screening of the film in Pasadena California. Before attending the film, which consisted of Hollywood producers, the director Richard Rossi, and his editor, I decided to do my homework and find out just who this woman was.

Immediately the name, Aimee Semple McPherson had a certain power to it, like she 'should' be known to all, a name that commands and demands attention. The internet was able to provide me not only with her history as an evangelist in Los Angeles, but the scandal that would follow her up to her untimely death at the age of 54 in 1944. Historically Aimee Semple McPherson is the founder of the FourSquare Gospel denomination, a denomination which still thrives today, headquartered in Hollywood, California.

The film began with a rather tongue in cheek throwback opening credit sequence to the silent films of Aimee's era. It seemed as if the director really wanted to put the audience into the sights and sounds of the roaring twenties. The opening montage was very effective in doing just that.

If I could use one word to sum up my experience watching the film Aimee Semple McPherson it would be 'Interior.' ASM was shot digitally on a small budget and many times with smaller independent films this tactic usually hurts the film, in this case it enhanced the story or more importantly the character whose name is the title of the film. Aimee Semple McPherson, as director Richard Rossi portrayed her is a woman of magnificent triumphs and magnificent defeats. This film isn't about crowds and buildings and model Ts, it's about quiet emotion, loneliness, and the idea that a higher power can call us to greatness no matter what our faults. This idea is a direct contradiction to the Christian church today which seems to enjoy looking good as opposed to being good.

The film begins at her famed and much publicized disappearance off the coast of Ocean Park beach in May, 1926. This disappearance was and is rumored to have been a hoax perpetrated by Aimee herself and an accused lover, Kenneth Ormiston played wonderfully by the dashing and sexy Michael Minor. The scandal of her disappearance would find Aimee in court when, soon after she disappeared two divers died looking for her body.

Straight from her disappearance we are taken back to Aimee's humble beginnings [via a mysterious reporter] in a small town in Stratford Ontario Canada. Aimee is 17 years old living with her parents. Aimee's father James Kennedy, is played graciously and perfectly by Rance Howard, [father of Hollywood heavy-weight Ron Howard]. Howard plays Aimee's understanding and nurturing father with Americana blue-collared perfection, his every line delivered with the conviction of belief as opposed to performance.

Aimee is portrayed by newcomer Mimi Michaels with grace and conviction. All of 20 years old, Michaels breathes life into a role most Hollywood actresses would not know what to do with. The part of ASM of was offered to Rene Russo who turned the part down. A pity for Ms. Russo, the role was perhaps the best female lead to circulate Hollywood in decades.

Kiera Chaplin [granddaughter of legendary Charlie Chaplin] makes an interesting appearance as a prostitute that goes for Aimee's third husband later on in the film. Chaplin seems to make a good effort at performance but yet again she doesn't understand the qualities of being a presence, and she never really was one. It almost seemed as if her performance was edited for impact.

ASM is also a film about imperfection and how imperfect people are used to affect positive change in the lives of so many others. Unlike bland TBN fair [did anyone actually see The Omega Code?] ASM is a portrait of a life as seen through the eyes of an artist as opposed to the eyes of Christian. Aimee's life isn't pretty, and many times she comes across as near manic-depressive or bi-polar, that is how real the calling of evangelism is in her life. In fact I think a plausible argument can be made debating whether Aimee was indeed clinically nuts. The fire of evangelism is started by her first husband Robert Semple, adequately performed by unknown actor Chad Nadolski whom Aimee loses through tragic circumstances. The fire grows and builds until Aimee has a following and church of her own in Los Angeles [Angelus Temple].

Probably what captured me the most is how director Rossi fully realized how spirituality and sexuality can so easily become entangled. It's no wonder why so many men and women of faith end up falling for their secretaries or congregational members. This is an idea not welcomed by many people who call themselves Christians but it's truth and that truth is offered not graphically but subtlety.

This is an important film. Rare is it when humanity is showcased so beautifully and stylistically and at the same time with a heart. There's a particular scene in the film when Aimee uses the pulpit as a means to raise money, she is vamped out, giving the performance of her life, while looking at us, the audience, the stand in for the non-existent congregation of Angelus Temple.

First time director Rossi weaves vaudevillian decadence with sensual spirituality but still maintains the heart of a healer who ultimately couldn't heal herself. This is a film for everyone to see and love. Aimee Semple McPherson has the theatrics of Moulin Rouge but the heart of the much underrated The Apostle, this film is not to be missed, there's something there for everyone.

Evan Charles Gross Freelance Entertainment Writer Pasadena California

One thing I notice, that has not been mentioned in other reviews, is that the film shows how we all have human and sexual needs, no matter how spiritual or holy we may be. Aimee leaves her husband to follow God's will, but later discovers "God is there spiritually, but He is not there physically." Richard Rossi's character provides the "smell of a real man," and she needs filled up by the fun and frolic he provides.

Overall, the story kept my interest the whole time. There were some reminders the film was done on a small budget, such as the lack of big crowd scenes or extras, and scenes that stay in a two-shot off one camera, rather than cutting to other takes or angles. But Rossi did walk away from a lot of money that would have compromised his vision as a writer, so there is an artistic purity here of an auteur. All the husbands were great. Chad Nadolski, Charles Hoyes, and Richard Rossi. I read an interview in Filmworks magazine where Rossi said the three husbands are the three sides of our nature: spirit or superego (Chad Nadolski as Robert Semple), the mind or ego (Charles Hoyes as Harold McPherson), and the id or impulsive sensual desires (Richard Rossi as David Hutton.)

Dreadfully bad, the acting is so poor it draws attention to what is going on in the film, not that it matters. The quality of the film is grainy and at times blurry. Didn't anyone making the film know how to focus the camera?! It is very amateurishly done. It is clearly evident director Richard Rossi has no idea how to make a film. The camera work seems like it was done by a child, the script is laughable bad. This certainly has to rank among the worst film of the 2000's. The lack of effort to capture the time period - the early 1900's is painfully obvious. This would be an excellent example for a film class and how NOT to make a film.