''Expecting Amish'' is a 2014 American television

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

produced and directed by Richard Gabai. It stars

AJ Michalka Amanda Joy Michalka ( ; born April 10, 1991) is an American actress, musician and singer-songwriter who is best known as one half of the musical duo Aly & AJ (briefly 78violet), alongside her older sister Aly Michalka. She has appeared in films ...

Jesse McCartney Jesse McCartney (born April 9, 1987) is an American actor and singer. He achieved fame in the late 1990s on the daytime drama ''All My Children'' as JR Chandler. He later joined the boy band Dream Street, and eventually branched out into a s ...

Alyson Stoner Alyson Rae Stoner (born August 11, 1993) is an American actor, singer, and dancer. Their film roles include ''Cheaper by the Dozen'' (2003), '' Cheaper by the Dozen 2'' (2005), and the ''Step Up'' franchise (2006–2014). Their television role ...

Cayden Boyd Cayden Michael Boyd (born May 24, 1994) is an American actor. He is best known for his child roles as Max in Robert Rodriguez's 2005 film '' The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl'' and Ben Reynolds in the 2007 film ''Have Dreams, Will Travel''. ...

, Aurelia Scheppers, and Avery Kristen Pohl. It also featured

Ron Ely Ronald Pierce Ely (June 21, 1938 – September 29, 2024) was an American actor and novelist, best known for portraying Tarzan in the 1966–1968 NBC series ''Tarzan (1966 TV series), Tarzan'' and playing the lead role in the film ''Doc Savage: ...

in his first acting role since 2001, and his last performance before his death in 2024.

Plot

Hannah Yoder, an 18-year-old raised in an Amish community near

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster ( ) is a city in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 58,039 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, eighth-most populous ci ...

, is about to be baptized into the Amish church and marry Samuel, the young man others had chosen for her to wed. Friends talk her into going on a

Rumspringa Rumspringa (), also spelled or ( , from Pennsylvania German ; compare Standard German ), is a rite of passage during adolescence, used in some Amish communities. The Amish, a subsect of the Anabaptist Christian movement, intentionally segr ...

, a time when some Amish youth briefly live away from the community to learn more about the outside world before joining the church. Hannah and some of her friends go to Hollywood and, at first, she does not want to wear different clothing or go to parties. But then she meets Josh, who is finishing his college studies and working part time as a DJ. Hannah and Josh fall in love, and he asks her to stay in California to be with him. She agrees, but says she needs to go back to Pennsylvania to say goodbye to her family and her fiancé, Samuel. Once back home Hannah falls back into Amish life, and wonders if she should stay. She finds out that she is pregnant, and tells Samuel, who states he will say that the baby is his. They must be baptized right away, and then marry. Hannah telephones Josh to tell him she is not returning to him, and that she is pregnant and will marry Samuel. Josh drives cross county to try and convince Hannah to return to California with him. She is torn between Samuel and Josh, but in the end chooses to start a new life with Josh. The film ends with Hannah’s father receiving a letter saying that Hannah had given birth to a girl, who was named after Hannah’s deceased mother.

Cast

as Hannah Yoder *

as Josh *

as Mary *

as Isaac * Aurelia Scheppers as Sarah * Avery Kristen Pohl as Beth *

Jean-Luc Bilodeau Jean-Luc Bilodeau (born November 4, 1990) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as Ben Wheeler in the ABC Family channel program '' Baby Daddy''. Bilodeau has also appeared in films and television series such as ''Ill Fated'', '' Tr ...

as Samual *

Brian Krause Brian Jeffrey Krause (born February 1, 1969) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Leo Wyatt on The WB television series ''Charmed'' (1998–2006) and for portraying the lead role of Charles Brady in the 1992 horror film '' Sleepwa ...

as Mr. Yoder *

as Elder Miller * Micah Tayloe Owens as Gabe * Carrie Wampler as Jennifer

Release

The film premiered on

Lifetime Network Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

on July 19, 2014, by Check Entertainment.

References

{{reflist American drama television films Amish in films 2014 films 2014 television films Films directed by Richard Gabai Lifetime (TV channel) films 2010s English-language films