Bride Flight 2008

Stephen Holden, New York Times: The weepy story at the heart of "Bride Flight" is trumped by its sumptuous depiction of New Zealand in the 1950s and '60s. This lushness has the effect of a powerful fabric softener added to the wash. Read more

Alison Willmore, Time Out: A sometimes silly but enjoyable experience. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: For anyone who shrugs at today's movies and thinks "they don't make 'em like they used to," here's a classy, good-looking chick flick in the old-school tradition. Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: The subtitles and period setting conjure a smattering of respectability, but in essence, this is arthouse pap, particularly for older audiences, turning the past into a concatenation of worn-out tropes that comforts as it distorts. Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: This very pretty melodrama is a rather ordinary entry. Read more

Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: "Bride Flight'' is the sort of old-fashioned women's picture they stopped making around the time Christina Crawford had to put away the wire hangers. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Smug and unconvincing, this 2008 period drama from the Netherlands is the sort of movie that defines an era solely by its prejudices, on the implicit assumption that we'll applaud the central characters for their modern attitudes. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's compelling in a middling miniseries kind of way -- expansive but not terribly deep. Read more

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: This Dutch melodrama compels despite its formulaic elements. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Aside from its period New Zealand setting, there is little to distinguish Bride Flight from something you might watch briefly on Lifetime, then change the channel. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: What's truly moving here are the characters, who all feel real enough to make you want to shout an occasional warning, like a fan in a horror movie. Except this time it's not "Don't go in the basement!" but "Don't marry him!" Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Sombogaart approaches his soapy subject with just enough restraint. As a result, you can convince yourself it's a highbrow arthouse film even as you're swooning and sniffling over so many tangled love stories. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The kind of lush, epic romantic weepie that Hollywood used to deliver on a regular basis for packed matinees at Radio City Music Hall. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Bride Flight is the most lavishly entertaining Dutch film since Paul Verhoeven's fabulous The Black Book. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: One should never discount the appeal of pretty people in pretty places. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The events in the plot are the stuff of soap opera, but the movie treats it seriously, and the acting is convincing enough that we forgive the story and begin to care about the characters. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Bride Flight gives a panoramic sweep of lives as they're lived, as there is a lot of beauty in it. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It does everything but hand viewers a glass of white wine, light candles and draw them a bath. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A tearjerking romance that belongs to another era, when female moviegoers wanted to be transported, not grounded in grim realities. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Variety: As in Twin Sisters, a veneer of nostalgia, plus excellent lensing and acting, make the soap-opera plot play on the bigscreen. Read more

Michelle Orange, Village Voice: The flashbacks dominate, playing like wet-inked storyboards: pioneer women forced into patriarch games; a baby born in secrecy and raised in deceit; Jewish legacy lost and found. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: Lovely scenery and historical context elevate the sentimental story lines above the soap opera domain. Read more