Bride Flight – 2 Buckets

Bride Flight is an epic yarn that not only finds its characters longing for the 1950s as decades pass, but its filmmakers, as well. Earlier this year, Roger Ebert called Country Strong “one of the best movies of 1957,” and the same is true of this film. In Bride Flight, long outdated melodrama fuels every emotion and plot development, to a point at which the proceedings can’t help but feel fake, even disingenuous. That’s not a criticism of 1950s melodrama itself; viewed historically, the genre still carries great emotional power. But Bride Flight is a modern film made for today’s audiences, not a stylistic imitation of a style gone by (ala Steven Soderbergh’s The Good German). As such, it feels rather cold and boring; no matter how impeccably shot or well acted, the movie is rooted in a flawed approach.

The historical-fiction film hops back and forth between the ‘50s and ‘60s and present day, when its wrinkled characters are reunited and offered due moments for reflection. The saga begins in 1953 on “The Last Great Air Race,” a timed excursion from London to Christchurch, New Zealand. Onboard, we meet three young Dutch women–the “brides” of the title–as they head South to make lives with their grooms, away from Holocaust-tattered Europe. Melodrama is present from the get-go, as Ada (Karina Smulders), already pregnant by a man whom she has only met once, immediately  falls in love with dashing fellow passenger Frank (Waldemar Torenstra). The movie makes it clear that they are meant to be together, and this only becomes more apparent in New Zealand, where we discover Ada’s new husband is an exaggerated prick. As Kiwis, fellow brides Esther (Anna Drijver) and Majorie (Elise Schaap) find themselves in a maternity drama that would be fit for “Dr. Phil” if it weren’t so artfully delivered.

The film’s production values are high and, for about an hour, it engrosses by technical merit alone. Shooting primarily in desaturated CinemaScope, director Ben Sombogaart and cinematographer Piotr Kukla made a movie that certainly looks like a classic. But really, the visual beauty of Bride Flight is just as hollow as that of the latest CGI-heavy comic-book adaptation; it is a distraction from the fact that there isn’t much else to the movie. Save for the strong central performances–Karina Smulders pulls off the remarkable feat of turning a caricature into a human–Bride Flight is one-dimensional in nearly every regard. The storytelling puts one “shocking” melodramatic plot-twist after another out of the hope viewers will accept it as merely old-fashioned, which proves patronizing in practice. Even elderly women who loved this type of movie back when it was original 60 years ago may find themselves scoffing at how lazily manufactured the narrative feels. In fact, if not for the subtitles, Bride Flight would be the perfect acquisition for the Lifetime Channel.

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Originally posted on June 16, 2011 for the film’s theatrical release.

Bride Flight (2011; Netherlands, Luxembourg). Produced by Gemma Derksen, Olga Madsen, Hanneke Niens, Anton Smit, Jani Thiltges, and Jose Van Doom. Directed by Ben Sombogaart. Written for the screen by Marieke van der Pol. Starring Karina Smulders, Waldemar Torenstra, Anna Drijver, Elise Schaap, Pleuni Touw, Petra Laseur, Willeke van Ammelrooy, and Rutger Hauer. Distributed by Music Box Films. Rated R, with a running time of 130 minutes.