I Reckon it's not For Me
Having been raised in the Amish community Katie Lapp's (Katie Leclerc) life was turned upside down when she met her English mother who put her up for adoption 20 years earlier. In wanting to get to know her biologically mother it leads to her being shunned from the community she grew up in but also when her biological mother passed away Katie inherited her wealth and foundation. Having decided to stay she finds herself becoming close to Justin (Chad Connell) but also finds a face from the past when former boyfriend Daniel Fisher (Jacob Blair) shows up after being presumed killed in a boating accident. With Kevin hanging around and working to fix up a home for troubled boys it leads to Katie feeling conflicted over her feelings towards him as well as Justin.
I had better admit I have not seen either of the previous movies in the Beverly Lewis Heritage of Lancaster County trilogy and whilst I am sure watching those movies would have helped you can jump into the last movie and watch without too much difficulty or looking for character explanations online. Unfortunately jumping in to this third movie does present you with another problem, it is so full on and frankly cheesy when it comes to dialogue and performances that I found myself groaning far too often. From Katie Leclerc doing Pennsylvania Dutch to the actors playing her butler and maid it is too forced to ignore.
Forcing things is a common theme through out the movie from Katie reminding us that she had an Amish up bringing to a guy who having grown up in a home for boys applying for a counselling job it feels like it is hitting you over the head with a mallet to tell us about the characters and their pasts. Maybe if I was 20 years younger these flaws would not have bugged me so much but they nearly made it impossible to watch.
As for the storyline well the main part is simple as we have Katie dealing with emotional conflict over who she should marry. But then we get little bits of story from things going on at the boy's home to things going on back in the Amish community. But again none of this is subtle and truthfully a lot of hard work if everything else in the movie has felt wrong for you.
What this all boils down to is that "The Reckoning" didn't work for me and found the whole thing forced and unsubtle to the point of feeling battered by it. And truth be told whilst I hadn't seen the previous two movies if they are like this I feel they may have been a struggle as well.
