Bride Flight

Based on Marieke van der Pol's novel, director Ben Sombogaart's Dutch melodrama follows three young post-WWII prospective brides who fly from England to New Zealand with the intention of making a new life for themselves. Bride Flight employs a present-day reunion as a framing device, with Rutger Hauer playing Frank, who met the trio when he took the same 1953 flight in hopes of starting a vineyard. During the fateful trip, his younger iteration (the strapping Waldemar Torenstra) bonds with pregnant farm girl Ada (Karina Smulders)—kissing her during a stop in Karachi—but a marriage of convenience awaits her in Christchurch in the form of husband-to-be Derk (Micha Hulshof), a strict Calvinist. In New Zealand, after Ada and Derk leave for the countryside, chain-smoking seamstress Esther (Anna Drijver) has a one-night stand with Frank before joining her straitlaced fiancé, a fellow Holocaust survivor, although Esther would rather make wedding dresses than wear one. The third woman, Marjorie (Elise Schaap), forms a happier home with her spouse, Hans (Mattijn Hartemink), until she discovers that she can't have children (Esther comes up with a solution, but her proposal proves problematic later on). Like several recent films that toggle between past and present, the former proves more emotionally compelling than the latter, but Bride Flight works more often than not. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (24 min.), an interview with writer Marieke van der Pol (6 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an engaging film.] (K. Fennessy)