Expecting Amish

This movie is terrible. I wanted to watch because I love reading about the Amish and the blond girl from "the Goldbergs" is in it, but this is truly awful. The characters are flat and unlikeable, there's barely a plot to speak of (and what plot there is is extremely far fetched), and the writing is abysmal. As others here have pointed out, in the first five minutes you can tell that no effort was made whatsoever to depict Amish life accurately. Don't waste your time watching it.

It's an Amish romance set in 2014 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Los Angeles, California. It follows a young Amish woman who participates in a rumspringa trip to Los Angeles and the consequences devolving from that trip.

Hannah Yoder (AJ Michalka) lives with her father (Brian Krause), younger sister, and brother. Her mother died three years earlier, so Hannah has been running the household. Everyone assumes after being baptized, Hannah will marry Samuel (Jean-Luc Bilodeau). However, her friends, Mary (Alyson Stoner), Sarah (Aurelia Scheppers), and Isaac (Cayden Boyd), convince Hannah to join them on their rumspringa trip to Los Angeles for a month or six weeks. She hesitantly joins them.

In LA, Hannah slowly begins to explore "English" life, and meets a college techie and disc jockey, Josh (Jesse McCartney). Ultimately, she must decide between Josh and Samuel.

"Expecting Amish" is a Lifetime movie with a woefully weak script and little linkage to reality. Samuel has a wooden manner and looks nothing like an Amish man. The community meets in a plain church (which doesn't happen) and shuns offenders whether or not they have been baptized. Rumspringa, where practiced, doesn't operate this way with the church's blessing. Elder/Bishop Miller (Ron Ely) baptizes by immersion in the lake. The ceremonies make no sense. Much of the dialogue is canned and predictable, along with the lack of research.

I loved this drama because it was so thought provoking and it appeals to the heart to lend compassion. Young adults in a modern world have great difficulties to face in a world where technology dominates, and so for a group of Amish young adults it must be even tougher. This movie was thought provoking, and anyone who has an ounce of compassion for the awkward difficulties of extremely different cultures will find themselves having genuine care and concern for those who are different. The pressures of being extremely different in a modern society where acceptance is so difficult are brought out in this story. It is a family movie, but possibly better suited for youth and young adults over the age of 12. I loved this story because although these young people face tough decisions this story holds a beautiful innocence that comes with finding love and maturing into real adults through making life decisions. The title might somewhat give away the plot, but then again not necessarily. In many ways the title makes the plot obvious. I loved this movie because to me it was realistic about the challenges of young adulthood and the future decisions that must be made by all young adults. Its about honesty, integrity, right, and wrong, and the meaning of real love and commitment.

It's like the research of the Amish subject was done exclusively from an inaccurate children's book.

Oh dear. Who researched the Amish for this movie? No credibility. This scriptwriter was operating on a stereotyped version of religious people that rings false at every turn. Let me count the ways: (1) Amish do NOT wear buttons at all. Ever. (2) They-do NOT have church buildings but worship every other Sunday in one another's homes. (3) Amish do not believe in religious symbols; the crosses on the "church" and the interior wall would never be seen in Amish country (4) rumspringa-the teen-age period of living away from home in the "world" can last a year or more unless they are unhappy out there and come back home sooner. That giddy 2-week vacation in an upscale house with cute wardrobes was just unrealistic. (4) where did the money come from? Amish are not poor but they are frugal (5) Amish female attire allows for only dark colors (6) Amish conduct worship services in their Germanic language only (7) They all speak this language at home. (8) They do not use hymnals (8) Theirs is a pacifist religion. They would Never sing "Onward Christian Soldiers". (8) they learn English as a second language in school; their English has a distinct German accent (9) they are hardly that clueless as they work for and with "the English" all the time in our homes, our shops, our industries and are familiar with modern conveniences -like toasters. They are just not allowed-or choose not- to own such items or have them in their homes or farms.(10) They are not allowed to have or play musical instruments (11) Brandenburg Concerto"? They don't attend concerts, or know classical music. This false depiction of a hard-working people shows utter disrespect for them, and the soap opera plot was hackneyed and predictable..