ENTERTAINMENT REALM

Starring: Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Tammy Blanchard and Matt Letscher

“I don’t like thinking about her lying there without a clean dress to wear.” –Ida

Based on real events, Amish Grace chronicles the horrific shooting in a quiet Amish hamlet—Nickel Mines, Penn. — that rocked the nation. Ida Graber [Williams-Paisley] keeps contact with Emma, her shunned sister. She even wants her daughter, Mary Beth, to spend time outside living with her sister and attending a public school. Ida seems conflicted. She’s happy with her simple life but strict life among the Amish community. One day a man barges into the one-room schoolhouse with a shotgun, a pistol and several rounds of ammunition. He took ten girls hostage. He shot all ten girls before killing himself. How could an outsider pierce this small, peaceful, religious community with such a violent act? He planned the attack. This guy delivered milk to this Amish town and knew many of its residents. When the media arrive on the scene it overwhelms this insular community.

Amazingly, the Amish, including Mary Beth’s father, forgive Charlie, the man who shot and killed the girls. That’s how spiritual they are. Ida cannot understand how they can do that. “I don’t know how to be without her,” she cries. “God has shattered my heart and I will not betray my daughter by forgiving the man that killed her.” She befriends a TV newscaster and rebels against the community. Williams-Paisley does a wonderful job as an angry and grieving mother who questions many of the practices and beliefs. Amish Grace is sad, powerful, and thought-provoking as it portrays how a community handles such an unforgivable and cold-blooded act.

Amish Grace premieres: Sunday, March 28 at 8 pm

–I received an advanced review copy from Lifetime TV.