Bride Flight: movie review
The aerial transports of the 1950s that carried Dutch women to New Zealand to meet up with their 茅migr茅 fianc茅s is given the respectable treatment in 鈥淏ride Flight,鈥� one of the most expensive films ever from the Netherlands. Switching between the 1950s, the '60s, and the present, it鈥檚 compelling in a middling miniseries kind of way 鈥� expansive but not terribly deep.
Director Ben Sombogaart focuses on three women: Esther (Anna Drijver), a Jewish fashion designer whose family was wiped out in the Holocaust; Ada (Karina Smulders), a shy farm girl; and the uptight Marjorie (Elise Schaap). All are enamored of the muscular cowboy Frank (Waldemar Torenstra) who has come over with them.
The entire movie flashes back from Frank鈥檚 present-day demise, and since Frank as an old man is played by Rutger Hauer, we don鈥檛 have to be sold on the man鈥檚 macho credentials. Too bad Hauer doesn鈥檛 have more screen time, especially since this is apparently his first appearance in a Dutch movie in many a moon. Grade: B- (Rated R for a strong sex scene and some graphic nudity.)
