An Amish Sin

I'm not sure why other reviewers have dissed this one, because I found it emotionally gripping start-to-finish. It's a superbly told tale of a young woman, Rachel Albrecht (Dylan Ratzlaff), torn between her Amish upbringing and her awareness of an outside world. Most depictions of the Amish portray them as relatively benign eccentrics - there are even tourists who take trips to Amish country just to gawk at them and their rejection of modern technology like cars and telephones - but in this film they come off as a Christian version of the Taliban. Co-writers. Michael Nankin (who also directed) and Barbara. Nance do a wonderful job of portraying Rachel's culture shock on encountering the non-Amish world, and Ratzlaff's performance is pitch-perfect as a woman torn between two worlds and not sure where she belongs. A rare diamond-in-the-rough triumph for Lifetime!

I mean, it's a Lifetime movie, so my expectations were pretty low to begin with, but I do love stories based on real events.

In the first few seconds, I was hooked. By the climax, I was ready to scream at the screen, "WHY ARE YOU GOING BACK?!"

The part that really got me, though, was the ending, with the phrase about "If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault in the Amish community, go to these websites." How??? How are they going to see the movie, much less have access to the websites? I get religious freedom, but children and young people need to be protected. An Amish person in Rumspringa MIGHT come across this story, but we all know it's a closed community. As a survivor of sexual assault, I can tell you that a young woman who has been blamed for her assault and has no access to the outside world will just deal with it.

Good movie, but we need to do better as humans. If you see someone who seems like they aren't okay, dig a little deeper and don't assume they have the same resources we have. Closed communities aren't immune to crime, they just cover it better because victims don't know they've been victimized, or they trust the church to protect them.

Cannot get into the female lead actually being Amish with the perfectly sculpted eyebrows, perfect make up on eyelashes. Granted the lead is usually attractive, but there is absolutely no way a young Amish woman would be made up like this. Light lipstick too.

Just too perfect.

The storyline was good and interesting, but the make-up was too much of a distraction.

The way the world is going nowadays, it is frightening that woman in all areas of life seem to buy into the garbage, that they are at fault, that they tempt men and are to blame. And that they openly encourage the perpetuation of this kind of existence.

I hope we are better than this, but I am beginning to have doubts.

This movie makes you think.

When the film started it was clearly a TV movie so instantly my expectation lowered. And rightly so. This is a fabulous story and I would love to see a full blown Hollywood production of it. Teenage girl rebelling against all her Amish background, family, church and upbringing after suffering abuse is a curtain raiser, and a very eye opening but sad story.

However right from the start the engaging Ratzlaff proves she's a little inexperienced in such a deep and multi layered role as this one, and the entire cast around her is weak. I think I'd look at the director for that fault rather than the actors.

Nevertheless I enjoyed watching it (it's based on a true story) and a brief glimpse into Amish life, although there isn't that much detail there and characters are rather grey and undeveloped.

It could have been better but was enough to get the story across and make me think so I scored it a 5.