This is a TV movie set in 1990s Amish country, Pennsylvania, as well as Philadelphia in the modern age. It is based on Jodi Picoult's 2001 novel of the same name. It was actually filmed in Toronto and Nova Scotia, Canada.
Katie Fitch (Alison Pill) is an 18-year-old Amish girl who initially denies giving birth to a dead infant found near a pond on the family farm. It's determinied the baby was alive at birth, and Katie is charged with 1st degree murder. Katie's aunt Leda (Catherine Disher), a nurse who was formerly Amish, asks her high-priced lawyer friend, Ellie Harrison (Mariska Hargitay), to take the case.
Ellie, who is in the process of reevaluating her own career finally agrees to take the case. As a condition of Katie's bail, Ellie is required to live with Katie and her parents. Thus she meets Aaron Fitch (Jan Niklas) the very strict and rigid father, and Sarah Fitch (Kate Trotter), the very weepy mother. Along the way we learn that a younger sister, Hannah, died at age seven from drowning, and that an older brother, Jacob (Alec McClure) has left the Amish community to attend college. Jacob has been disowned by Aaron, but Sarah facilitated visits by Katie to Jacob in Harrisburg.
Ellie keeps pressing Katie for the truth and keeps getting changing stories. Ellie consults her psychiatrist friend and former lover, Cooper (Jonathan LaPaglia). He interviews Katie several times and Ellie considers a variety of defenses.
Finally the trial takes place, some dramatic revelations appear, and the case is resolved.
I liked this movie more the first time I saw it years ago. This time I kept seeing problems with the whole story line. What 18-year-old girl is going to be charged with First Decree Murder in the death of an infant in its first hours? It made the plot implausible from the beginning. This Amish district seemed to meet in a small church; I'm not aware of this in Pennsylvania Old Order Amish districts--they almost all meet in houses or barns. The way Katie's discipline was handled by the church was bizarre--the elders took a vote and the congregation was not involved at all. How Jacob got from grade 8 to college is not explained. Many of the questions asked by Ellie and the prosecutor would have been completely out of bounds in any trial.
This is one of the more negative portrayals of the Amish. A harsh father, family members who never really talk to each other, and when they do it's not the truth.
Nonetheless, it was an interesting plot with a problematic script.
Katie Fitch (Alison Pill) is an 18-year-old Amish girl who initially denies giving birth to a dead infant found near a pond on the family farm. It's determinied the baby was alive at birth, and Katie is charged with 1st degree murder. Katie's aunt Leda (Catherine Disher), a nurse who was formerly Amish, asks her high-priced lawyer friend, Ellie Harrison (Mariska Hargitay), to take the case.
Ellie, who is in the process of reevaluating her own career finally agrees to take the case. As a condition of Katie's bail, Ellie is required to live with Katie and her parents. Thus she meets Aaron Fitch (Jan Niklas) the very strict and rigid father, and Sarah Fitch (Kate Trotter), the very weepy mother. Along the way we learn that a younger sister, Hannah, died at age seven from drowning, and that an older brother, Jacob (Alec McClure) has left the Amish community to attend college. Jacob has been disowned by Aaron, but Sarah facilitated visits by Katie to Jacob in Harrisburg.
Ellie keeps pressing Katie for the truth and keeps getting changing stories. Ellie consults her psychiatrist friend and former lover, Cooper (Jonathan LaPaglia). He interviews Katie several times and Ellie considers a variety of defenses.
Finally the trial takes place, some dramatic revelations appear, and the case is resolved.
I liked this movie more the first time I saw it years ago. This time I kept seeing problems with the whole story line. What 18-year-old girl is going to be charged with First Decree Murder in the death of an infant in its first hours? It made the plot implausible from the beginning. This Amish district seemed to meet in a small church; I'm not aware of this in Pennsylvania Old Order Amish districts--they almost all meet in houses or barns. The way Katie's discipline was handled by the church was bizarre--the elders took a vote and the congregation was not involved at all. How Jacob got from grade 8 to college is not explained. Many of the questions asked by Ellie and the prosecutor would have been completely out of bounds in any trial.
This is one of the more negative portrayals of the Amish. A harsh father, family members who never really talk to each other, and when they do it's not the truth.
Nonetheless, it was an interesting plot with a problematic script.