Bride Flight (2011)

Fantastic!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

In the present day, successful winemaker Frank de Rooy dies and three women are requested at his funeral. In 1953, a KLM flight breaks a record traveling from London to Christchurch. Frank meets Ada van Holland, Esther Cahn, and Marjorie Mullin who are three of the brides on their way to New Zealand. Frank lost his family in colonial Indonesia during the war. He falls for country girl Ada but she's already married by proxy to Calvinist Derk Visser. She goes on to live a loveless marriage in a bunker having several children. The only passion is the exchange of letters with Frank until he discovers them. Esther is an independent Jewish woman after losing everyone in the Holocaust. She refuses to live with ghosts from the past and charges forward making a career as a successful fashion designer. Marjorie marries Hans Doorman. After Esther gives birth, Marjorie adopts the baby as her own.It's an old-fashion romantic melodrama. Ada's quiet suffering is devastating and her life is worthy of any pulp romance. This is all very pulpy with Marjorie and Esther. The movie should stop flashing forward to the modern era so much. It should have stopped after Rutger Hauer died. Every time it goes modern, the movie grinds to a halt. The modern era should be tiny bookends. Otherwise, this is a good old fashion melodrama if one is inclined towards such things.

The white subtitles, translating Dutch to English, on mostly white background, especially at the beginning of the, film mixed with some rapid flashbacks to different time periods, also early in the film, were found to be quite bothersome by myself and the three others with whom I attended this movie . This was especially true as the characters and storyline was being established. Despite this distraction, as the movie progressed we all found it to be quite engrossing. There was some very rich character development, excellent plot lines and a magnificent beautiful setting in New Zealand. The story begins in post World War II Holland in the 1950s as three young women (Karina Smulders, Anna Drijver and Elise Schaap) are boarding an airplane for New Zealand to join their new husbands and start a new life. One of them is Jewish and the trauma of the holocaust will have a very subtle cast on the film. On board they also meet Frank (Wakdenar Torenstra ) a young man, somewhat of a free spirit, also seeking a new life as a farmer and ultimately a wine maker who will play prominently in their lives. The story captures the frontier life in New Zealand at this time, the conflicts of religion, passion, friendships and good old fashioned romance. There is also a theme of an important family secret that hovers in the story and should be one that you have seen and thought about in other settings. In alternating time sequences, we get to know these people as their lives progress to a point 40 or 50 years later. There is a coming together at the conclusion of the film, which is poignant and quite moving. This is the story about these people but the background atmosphere is the post war settlement of this small beautiful land. After seeing this film whenever you enjoy a glass of New Zealand wine you may reflect on this movie and the people whose lives you came to understand. FilmRap.net

Remember the old lady in Atonement? What if she led her life without regrets? What if she laid it all on the line before it was too late, before her sister died, before she grew old? Like the Oscar winning film, Bride Flight is about elders (we get three here) reflecting on their past when they reconvene at a funeral. The central elder, Ada, had a choice to make in her youth to either follow Frank (an Adonis of men, perhaps too good to be true, every woman's fantasy) or follow her husband Derk (essentially a Jerk, but represents stability, religion, and order). Ada chose to go with Derk, but in the third act of the movie she had an opportunity to undo her mistake. Where Atonement was about living with regret and sadness, Bride Flight is about living with regret, and then doing something about it. Ada runs off with Frank and puts it all on the line. This film should not go underneath the radar because it's not only a case study of human potential, but also a true cinematic feat.

Many people will call this film a chick flick, but coming from a guys perspective it was a great story to watch. Though some comparisons will be made to the Notebook, its story has so many more layers then the notebook that there should be no comparison to it. The stories presented in the film are not only more believable but stories that everyone can relate to because they may all happen to us sometime in our life. From a filming perspective I thought they did a great job balancing the different times in their life going back and forth without confusing the audience. Another great part of the film was how they took advantage of the amazing and diverse scenery of New Zealand. Anyone who was fans of the amazing cinematography of The Lord of the Ring trilogy will love the cinematography of this film. Anyone who loved Atonement will recognize with this film as well since it has WW2 sentiments and is a period. This movie will defiantly be a contender for the Best foreign film award this year.