Amish
Grace
Lifetime Movie Network
Sunday, March 28
8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 PT
Review By Ally Matteodo
Based on the true story of the tragic school
shooting in the tranquil Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, Amish
Grace explores the ideas of faith, grief, and ultimately, forgiveness. This
moving film, which will premiere on the Lifetime Movie Network Sunday, March 28th
at 8:00 p.m. ET, is the PTC’s choice as Best TV Show of the Week.
We first bear witness to the peaceful and simple
life at Nickel Mines, with a focus on the Graber family. Ida and Gideon Graber
raise two little girls: Katie, a seven year-old, and Mary Beth, a fourteen
year-old who wishes to become a schoolteacher. However, this dream died when
Charlie Roberts, a milkman who delivered to the Amish community, entered the
schoolhouse in the fall of 2006 and killed Mary Beth, along with four other
girls. None of this violence is shown; it is only implied through images of
Charlie entering the schoolhouse with a shotgun, and then afterwards when
covered bodies are brought out on stretchers. Amish Grace centers on Ida
Graber’s struggle with her grief and her battle to find forgiveness in her
heart. While others in the Amish community visit Amy Roberts, the widow of
Charlie Roberts, and express their forgiveness and desire to help her, Ida feels
resentment and anger towards the man who killed her daughter, and by extension
his widow. The turning point for Ida occurs when Rebecca, a young girl wounded
by gunfire at the schoolhouse, awakens from her coma and tells Ida that Mary
Beth was the bravest one at the schoolhouse that tragic day. Even when she knew
Charlie Roberts was about to shoot her, Mary Beth still told him she would pray
for him. Ida, shaken to her core, realizes that if her beloved daughter could
exercise such forgiveness, so can she.
In one telling moment of the film, Amy Roberts’
father notices a basket of toys at her house. After the shooting, the Amish
brought Amy these toys for her children, since their own children would be
unable to play with them. The father comments, “They really put their money
where their mouth is.” This off-hand statement reflects the incredulity of
people in general when observing the Amish ability to forgive. A reporter
covering the shooting cannot fathom such forgiveness herself, and attempts to
seek out “an angle,” reflecting that perhaps the head of the Amish community is
coercing devastated parents to stifle their grief and anger. While comforting
Ida, the reporter says, “Some things are unforgivable.” In an age where
sentiments of revenge and “an eye for an eye” saturate both the news and fiction
media, the story of Amish Grace almost seems unbelievable – yet it is
true.
Kimberly Williams-Paisley plays the part of Ida
Graber. She amazingly captures the inner turmoil, anger, and sadness of a mother
who has lost her child. Her ability to find forgiveness is truly exceptional
considering the pain she’s experienced. The film also explores why forgiveness
is superior to anger. The Amish explain that “hate will eat up your whole heart
and leave nothing left for love,” and that “God is the one who doles out
punishment.” When the reporter expresses that she cannot understand forgiveness
in the absence of remorse or regret, an Amish man explains to her that
“forgiveness comes without condition, or it doesn’t come at all.” Yet the most
telling line is this: “If we hold onto anger and resentment, we are the ones who
are punished.” Forgiveness is a form of acceptance, which is the last stage of
grief…and thus, frees one to love and find joy in life again.
Best TV Show
of the Week
The Parents
Television Council -
www.parentstv.org
