Upamanyu Biswas
Directed by Cooper Harrington, ‘My Amish Double Life‘ follows a young Amish woman named Emma, who faces an internal crisis following her father’s passing. Subsequently, Emma begins leading a double life away from prying eyes. By day, she and her friend Rebecca maintain the images of good Amish girls in their strict community, while by night, they flirt with boys and experience the hedonistic pleasures of the “English” world outside. Their nightly escapades take them to new places and show them new freedoms previously unimagined. However, things go awry when Emma witnesses a murder during one of her excursions, throwing her entire existence and her dual identity into danger. The Lifetime thriller movie is centered on themes of deception, secrets, forbidden pleasures, crime, and community, not uncommon in the real world.
My Amish Double Life Delves Into the Complexities of Personal Expression in a Traditional Environment
‘My Amish Double Life’ is a fictional story penned by Bryan Dick, Ken Sanders, and John J. Tierney. The movie is an examination of rumspringa, an Amish rite of passage where adolescents are given a finite period to explore the world without any restrictions. In the movie, Emma goes through a difficult family tragedy, which compels her to seek out a different life than the one she has been living under her mother Mary’s tutelage. She tries to enjoy the amenities of the modern world. However, it eventually comes back to haunt her as a murder mystery threatens her way of life. As such, the film tackles the concept of nature versus nurture, which is an age-old expression for those brought up in orthodox environments, touching upon the reality faced by many who seek freedom from a restrictive lifestyle.
Although fictional, the movie’s premise closely resembles other thriller projects. For instance, the 1985 neo-noir crime movie, ‘Witness,’ revolves around Detective Captain John Brook (Harrison Ford), a police officer who has to protect an Amish woman named Rachel Lapp and her son following a murder in a railway station. After Rachel witnesses the murder of an undercover detective, she becomes a target for those seeking to keep the mystery hidden, forcing Brook into taking action. Like ‘My Amish Double Life,’ the film tackles the divide between traditional Amish life and contemporary society, highlighting the differences between the two and how it leads to complex situations when questions of morality, death, and deception are raised.
Emma’s Journey Parallels the Real-Life Experiences of Some Individuals
‘My Amish Double Life’ mainly centers on Emma’s desire to feel liberated in a world that has taken her away from her freedoms. She wants to feel like an individual in control of her own life and destiny. However, her religious upbringing has left her devoid of that privilege. While her character and story are drawn from the imagination of the writers, the contextual details surrounding her lifestyle are vaguely rooted in reality. There are parallels between her experience and those of Naomi Swartzentruber, an Amish woman who left her community at the age of 17. Despite coming from one of the stricter Amish sects, the Swartzentruber Amish, she found liberty while working in industries such as food service, manufacturing, and medical, and a successful 20-year span as an exotic dancer.
Naomi’s journey is a reminder of the empowerment people find when moving away from rigid societal expectations. This is embodied succinctly in Emma as she, too, desires to break free from the shackles of her rigid lifestyle. However, the more she is dragged into hedonistic pleasures, the more she finds herself in a place she barely understands. The movie plays into these anxieties to build tension within the narrative. As Emma progressively embraces her double life, which is rife with “sinful” pleasures, the more danger she attracts. This culminates in her entire existence falling to pieces when she comes into contact with the dead body. To that end, the movie presents an exaggerated version of events. However, its thematic elements and central premise are built on the experiences of those who grow up in sanitized and restrictive communities.
Read More: My Amish Double Life: Review
