Trauma from WWII haunts each character, but even the historical foregrounding doesn't keep Ben Sombogaart's weepie from being more soapy than serious.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker
It's all very tastefully handled by Ben Sombogaart, shot in plenty of staid compositions whose denuded color scheme suggests a historical remove, but it rarely generates any heat, even during a pair of graphic, but not particularly erotic sex scenes.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
The plotlines are clichéd and the score overbearing, but uniformly strong turns go a long way towards shaping the lush, nostalgic atmosphere. Don't forget to bring tissues.
The kind of lush, epic romantic weepie that Hollywood used to deliver on a regular basis for packed matinees at Radio City Music Hall.
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
Bride Flight gives a panoramic sweep of lives as they're lived, as there is a lot of beauty in it.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
Switching between the 1950s, the '60s, and the present, it's compelling in a middling miniseries kind of way – expansive but not terribly deep.
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. Think of it as instant mashed potatoes for the soul.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Best enjoyed as a lavish period travelogue whose story is dwarfed by its panoramic overview.