''Plain Truth'' is a 2004 TV

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

directed by Paul Shapiro, starring

Mariska Hargitay Mariska Magdolna Hargitay (; born January 23, 1964) is an American actress, director and philanthropist. The daughter of bodybuilder and actor Mickey Hargitay and actress Jayne Mansfield, her accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, a Peopl ...

Alison Pill Alison Pill (born November 27, 1985) is a Canadian actress. A former child actress, Pill began her career at age 12, appearing in numerous films and television series. She transitioned to adult roles and her breakthrough came with the television ...

and

Jan Niklas Jan Niklas (born 15 October 1947) is a German film and television actor. He is best known for appearing in TV films such as '' Peter The Great'', '' Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna'' and '' Anne Frank: The Whole Story''. He won a Golden Globe Aw ...

. The film is based on

Jodi Picoult Jodi Lynn Picoult () is an American writer. Picoult has published 28 novels, accompanying short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 ...

's book '' Plain Truth'', where an

Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churc ...

teen hides a pregnancy, gives birth in secret, and then flatly denies it all when the baby's body is found, urban defense attorney Ellie Harrison decides to defend her.

Plot summary

Katie (

) is an 18-year-old girl who lives in a small

community in the Pennsylvania farm country. When a newborn baby is found dead, police suspect foul play, and Katie is accused of having given birth to the child, then taking its life due to her shame about the baby's illegitimacy. Katie protests her innocence on both charges, and Ellie Harrison (

), a tough and well-respected attorney, is brought in to defend her in court. Eventually it is revealed that Katie had conceived the child by a young male academic student whom she had befriended while attending college to visit her excommunicated brother. She was wearing nice non-amish clothes while visiting her brother. Her child had been born extremely sickly due to Katie's lifetime practice of drinking unpasteurized milk. It is assumed by the jury and the townspeople in general, therefore, that the baby merely died naturally of its weakened condition shortly after birth, and so Katie is declared innocent of all wrongdoing. At the very end of the story, however, Katie's mother Sarah privately reveals to Ellie that she had known that Katie was pregnant and that she followed her to the pond the night that Katie went there and gave birth. Sarah shows Ellie the scissors that had been missing from her husband's barn since that night. The implication is that she used the scissors to cut the umbilical cord, that she suffocated the baby and disposed of the body in the pond. Though shocked and horrified at the gaunt older woman's admission, Ellie chooses not to reveal her knowledge to the police. The classic Picoult twist is that after all Ellie had been through trying to get the truth out of Katie, it seems as though Katie had been covering for her mother's murder of the baby all along.

Cast

as Ellie Harrison *

as Katie Fitch *

as Aaron Fitch * Kate Trotter as Sarah Fitch * Alec McClure as Jacob Fitch * Robert Bockstael as George Calloway * Colin Fox as Bishop Stoflus *

Jonathan LaPaglia Jonathan LaPaglia (, ; born 31 August 1969) is an Australian actor and television personality. He has hosted Network 10's revival of ''Australian Survivor'' since 2016. As an actor, LaPaglia is known for his roles as Frank B. Parker in the tel ...

as Cooper *

Laura Leigh Hughes Laura may refer to: People * Laura (given name) * Laura, the British code name for the World War I Belgian spy Marthe Cnockaert Places Australia * Laura, Queensland, a town on the Cape York Peninsula * Laura, South Australia * Laura Bay, a bay on ...

as Det. Lisa Munro *

Catherine Disher Catherine Disher is a British-born Canadian actress. She has won two Gemini Awards: in 2005 for Best Actress for her role in the Canadian mini-series '' Snakes and Ladders'', and in 2010 for her role in '' The Border''. She was also nominated for ...

as Leda *

Andrew Martin-Smith Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...

as Samuel Stoflus *

Christopher Ralph Christopher Douglas Ralph (born May 13, 1977) is a Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Tobias in the 1998 TV series ''Animorphs ''Animorphs'' is a science fantasy series of children's books written by Katherine Applega ...

as Adam Sinclair *

Jeremy Akerman Jeremy Bernard Akerman (born May 28, 1942) is a former Canadian politician, writer and actor and a former leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party. __TOC__ Early life Akerman was born in Alvechurch, Worcesteshire, United Kingdom. He was ...

as Judge * Mauralea Austin as Jury foreman *

Nigel Bennett Nigel Bennett (born 19 November 1949) is a British-Canadian actor, director, and writer who has been based in Canada since 1986. He is best known for playing the vampire patriarch Lucien LaCroix in the TV series ''Forever Knight'', for which h ...

as Jeremy Whitmore

References

External links

* * * {{tcmdb title, id=642703 2004 television films 2004 films Amish in popular culture Amish in films Lifetime (TV network) films Films based on works by Jodi Picoult 2000s English-language films