Lifetime
When I first saw the title of the newest Lifetime TV movie, Amish Stud: The Eli Weaver Story, I thought this was one that could not be missed. And when I saw that it starred Luke Macfarlane — the King of Hallmark Movies — I knew it was a must-see event. Being a fan of the Breaking Amish franchise over on TLC was also an impetus for watching, but don’t worry because even if you know nothing about the Amish, this TV movie will give you an ‘Amish for Dummies’ rundown on some of the more important pieces of the lifestyle … while also providing one very questionable scene.
Amish Stud: The Eli Weaver Story is actually a true story, one of Lifetime’s ‘Ripped from the Headlines’ movies, although the story isn’t from recent headlines. This one is based on a book, A Killing in Amish Country: Sex, Betrayal, and a Cold-blooded Murder, by Rebecca Morris and Gregg Olsen. The story is centered around Eli Weaver, a young, handsome Amish man who woos an Amish womans Barbara, despite the warnings of Barbara’s sister to avoid him. The couple fall in love and marry, but Barbara soon learns that Eli demands her to submit in ways that she feels is morally wrong (oral sex) which he takes as rejection (the couple do eventually have two children), so he begins hanging out in local bars in ‘English’ clothing (‘English’ refers to anyone who isn’t Amish) and hooking up with women who find him irresistible. With the help of a woman named Barbara Raber, who is known in the community as the Amish taxi driver (it’s not explained in the movie but she is Mennonite which is a less strict version of the Amish), he has a ride to and from whoever he’s seeing at the moment, and she gives him access to her computer and puts him on her family cell phone plan so he can use dating apps to hook up using the handle ‘Amish Stud’.
Eli moves in with one woman but that soon turns sour, and he begins to fall for another woman named Tamara who has him firmly in the friend zone despite his attempts to get a kiss from her (Raber, however, believes the two are having a sexual relationship). Eli and Tamara wish they could be together but she won’t entertain the thought as long as Eli is married … and divorce is a no-no among the Amish. Eli wonders that if his wife were dead then maybe they could be together. Tamara says sure, but after Eli leaves she is struck by the comment. Was he suggesting they murder his wife? Driver Barbara is also completely under Eli’s spell and he uses that to get her to help him plan the murder, with the promise that they can be together once his Barbara is dead. Raber helps him look up articles online on how to kill someone — apparently not aware of a thing called a ‘Search History’ — and they first decide on a sleeping pill overdose, with the pills added to Barbara’s water. Barbara takes one taste of the water and knows something is wrong, and Eli has to cover by saying it was for him because he was going to kill himself. With that method a massive fail, Eli tells Barb the only solution is a gunshot … and luckily he owns a gun and sporting goods shop! So Eli plans to be on a fishing trip with his Mennonite pal Jeremiah, and Barb sneaks into the Weaver house and shoots Barbara while she sleeps. With two kids in the house. Eli proclaims his innocence, but Barbara’s sister finds a journal that details all of Eli’s abuses to his wife and hands it over to the police, while Tamara realizes that Eli’s musings about his wife being dead were meant to be taken seriously. It’s only a matter of time before the police move in a nab the suspects, but putting all of the pieces together was a little more difficult than expected, especially since Eli had an alibi for the time of death. (In reality, Eli and Barb were arrested one day after the murder.)
Lifetime
Amish Stud: The Eli Weaver Story is more of a straightforward story than the unintentionally campy The Paramedic Who Stalked Me. Some may say that the casting of the handsome and buff Macfarlane went too far, but the real Eli isn’t bad looking at all (if you can ignore the beard … and Macfarlane actually grew a beard for the role but it’s much more groomed than Eli’s), sort of a young Harrison Ford look to him. Macfarlane is certainly charming and handsome but there’s something about his performance that just feels like ‘acting’. Maybe because Eli is acting with everyone in his life. Macfarlane, however, does feel more natural in his scenes with Karolina Cubitt (Tamara), making their friendship and possible romantic relationship feel more realistic. It’s not a bad performance but it could have used more layers. On the other hand, Cubitt turns in a completely natural performance (which rubs off on Macfarlane) and their scenes together elevate the film. Miranda MacDougall is also fine as Barbara Weaver, but I have to question her one big scene in the movie where Barbara has a session with a therapist. I’ve seen every episode of Breaking Amish and if there’s one thing I know it’s that the Amish do not believe in stepping outside of the community, and especially not to see a therapist, which is akin to witchcraft. I have no idea if this scene happened in real life, nor do I know if Barbara kept a journal (I’m not sure if the Amish are big on journaling), but these things took me right out of the story. MacDougall, however, does also give a fine performance. [Note: Upon doing some digging, Barbara did reach out to a religious counselor in the community, and did keep notes about their failing marriage.]
Kirsten Vangsness, best known for her role as Penelope Garcia on Criminal Minds, plays Barbara Raber and she gives an interesting interpretation of the woman. At first we don’t even know she’s going to become a main component of the story as she just appears to be the taxi driver. Her performance becomes more heightened and walks on the edge of being over-the-top, and she often plays Barbara as if she doesn’t have complete control of her mental faculties, which is kind of funny because at one point she mentions that her husband is a bit slow and stupid (and he actually seems perfectly fine). The real Barbara Raber was about ten years older than Eli — and looked 20 years older — so she gets a bit of a glow up in the movie. The two detectives are interesting. First there’s Detective Exposition, erm, Detective London (Brent Stait) who is basically saddled with explaining the details of the Amish community to his parter Detective Maxwell (Mark Krysko) and the viewers who don’t know all the rules of the Amish. It’s often like he’s talking to a child, which sometimes his partner seems to be at times. That’s no fault of the actors, who are fine, it’s just that the writing makes them more simplistic than they need to be.
Amish Stud: The Eli Weaver Story is at least an interesting movie with an interesting story. Doing more digging into it, there is a lot that was left out (like when Eli comes home clean shaven and in English clothing after spending some time away with one of his girlfriends) and the timeline is off, but if you don’t know much about the case — the murder happened in 2009 — it’s not the worst way to spend 90 minutes (minus the commercials). And if you’re wondering, Eli is eligible for parole in June 2024, while Barbara is eligible in June 2032.
Amish Stud: The Eli Weaver Story has a run time of about 90 minutes, and is rated TV-14. The movie is streaming Lifetime’s On Demand channel on Hulu. You can also buy or rent the movie on iTunes and Amazon.
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