Lifetime
Lifetime heads back to Amish Country with its latest ‘Ripped from the Headlines’ story, A Kidnapping in Amish Country, but how much of this is fact or fiction is hard to tell. The story centers around Lena (Jorja Cadence), an ex-Amish woman who returns to the community with a lot of secrets, including a suitcase full of cash which she buries near the home of Aaron (Benjamin Sutherland), her former beau with whom she hopes to reconnect. Seeing as he has no beard, he’s still a free man and happily welcomes her back into his home. Their reunion is a bit sinful though as they fornicate before marriage, but they get married pretty quickly and before you know it they have a daughter named Miriam (Ryelyn Cressman). Five years pass and all is well until late one night during their buggy ride home they come upon what appears to be an unconscious man in the middle of the road, the doors of his car all wide open. Aaron jumps out to help over Lena’s protests but she follows, telling Miriam not to get out of the buggy. While they try to attend to the man, more men jump out of the car and assault the couple while one of them takes Miriam from the buggy. Somehow the police and EMTS arrive, but Lena assures them that only they were injured and their daughter was safe at home with her grandmother.
When they do return home, Lena finds some threatening phrases written on her arm and leg, warning them not to get the police involved or the child dies, and that they are to come to a certain address early the next morning. Lena knows this is all about that stolen money so she drags Aaron out to the burial site and digs it up but he refuses to go to the house with her. When she gets there, she is again held hostage with one of the kidnappers painting her face to make her look like the cheap slut she is (his words), but she just looks like a child who got into mommy’s makeup. He takes two Polaroids, one for his boss and one for her, and they leave with the money, telling her she’ll never see Miriam again. Finding a note at home from Aaron that he’s going to the police and she needs to turn herself in, Lena instead goes back to her English look and pops up at the apartment of her best ex-Amish friend Skye, now a popular vlogger and a non-binary person (which explains why when Lena asked if anyone had heard from Skye she gets the cold shoulder), to ask for their help in finding Miriam. Skye isn’t too thrilled since Lena just up and left without a word five years earlier, but when they find out there is a child involved Skye is more than willing to help. What they don’t know is they are about to go down a rabbit hole of deceit and deception that ends with a wild twist when the truth about Miriam’s kidnapping is revealed.
A Kidnapping in Amish Country isn’t quite as juicy of a tale as Lifetime’s previous Amish-themed movies, mainly because it stays in the English world for too long, but the story by Taylor Warren Goff (who also wrote Lifetime’s utterly ridiculous Don’t Scream, It’s Me!) is at least interesting enough to engage the viewers. Director Cat Hostick keeps the story moving forward and gets some very good performances from her cast.
Jorja Cadence does a good job as Lena, the ‘worldly’ woman who easily slips back into her Amish lifestyle, a loving wife and mother, although she may go a little too far in the sexytime department, angering Aaron with something she must have learned with someone else in the English world (and of which we are only allowed to guess what it could have been, but whatever it was it wasn’t just missionary position). She’s fierce and tenacious and willing to do whatever it takes to find her daughter, and she’s not afraid to stand up to her Amish husband. Kudos to Lifetime for casting queer actor Elise Bauman as Skye, and a tip of the hat to the writer for making them a strong, intelligent character ready to go to any lengths for their friend (although we are also left to wonder if there was anything else beside friendship between Lena and Skye). Bauman really is a highlight of the film. Benjamin Sutherland is also quite good as Aaron, perfectly embodying the character of an Amish man, stalwart, a bit overbearing, and quite frightening when he feels Lena is not respecting him, especially after her past has put them in danger.
While not as salacious as Amish Stud and Amish Affair, A Kidnapping in Amish Country has a strong main cast, really dominated by the performances of Cadence and Bauman, and a story with a twist that is actually quite surprising which helps elevate the whole thing from being too much of a cliché.
A Kidnapping in Amish Country has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
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