Bride Flight (2011) Review

At the time of its production and release, Bride Flight reportedly checked in as one of the most lavish and expensive Dutch-language features ever made. The title of this epic tale refers, quite literally, to a period airplane flight transporting new brides from Holland to New Zealand, where they plan to meet their intendeds.

Karina Smulders, Elise Schaap, Anna Drijver star, respectively, as quiet and backward yet sensual farm girl Ada; über-content homemaker-to-be Marjorie; and highly vocal, self-confident, Jewish fashion designer Esther. As the tale opens, it is the mid-1950s; the three women share the same flight, and instantly forge a fast friendship, thanks in no small part to their shared amorous advances from Frank (Waldemar Torenstra), a cowboy-cum-adventurer also on the plane.

Upon arrival, Frank and Ada fall deeply in love, but Ada's marriage to Micha Hulshof, a devout Christian who lives with her in a converted World War II bunker, severely complicates this. Meanwhile, Esther and Marjorie encounter their own problems; one winds up pregnant by an unknown progenitor, while the other discovers her own infertility.

After following these stories for a time, the tale flashes forward to the present day, where the women reencounter one another at the funeral of Frank (played in middle age by Rutger Hauer). Problems arise when Esther witnesses Marjorie (Petra Laseur) accompanying her son Bob (Marc Klein Essink) - thus underscoring the film's thematic meditation on the unshakable connection between present and past.