The scent of perfumed suds hangs heavily over “Bride Flight,” a 130-minute fictionalized quasi-epic inspired by an actual contest known as the Last Great Air Race. The winner of the roughly 12,000-mile flight from London to Christchurch, New Zealand, in October 1953 touched down 41 minutes ahead of its closest rival. The movie incorporates vintage newsreel footage of the plane leaving London on a bumpy journey nicknamed the Bride Flight because many of the passengers were Dutch brides-to-be fleeing a country devastated by World War II.

Directed by Ben Sombogaart from a screenplay by Marieke van der Pol, the movie offers in some ways an updated theme and variation on the 1941 melodrama “The Great Lie,” since its crucial plot twist involves maternity and deception. But 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.

As “Bride Flight” follows the destinies of three eager young women and one man aboard that plane, it zigzags among 1953, 1963 and the present. In the contemporary scenes the women reunite for the funeral of a dashing dreamboat they met en route to their new home. In these scenes the characters, now in their 70s, are played by different actors.

One of the most expensive Dutch films ever made, “Bride Flight” is best enjoyed as a lavish period travelogue whose story is dwarfed by its panoramic overview. When the drama stalls, you can always sit back and soak in the scenery, confident that nothing in the movie is likely to disturb your sleep. New Zealand in the 1950s has the look and feel of pioneer territory emerging into modernity. Now and then, it suggests the Reconstruction half of “Gone With the Wind,” minus carpetbaggers and freed slaves.

This is not to say that the three plucky heroines don’t have a lot of adjusting to do, both to the rustic environment and to the strait-laced New Zealand menfolk. Esther (Anna Drijver), the most vivid and hard-driving of the three, is an aspiring fashion designer whose Jewish family was murdered by the Nazis. The moment she meets her fiancé, he lays down the law and insists that she follow strict Jewish customs. She dumps him in a flash. She also happens to be pregnant by another man.

Ada (Karina Smulders), also pregnant, by a fiancé she has met only once, dutifully marries him only to discover that he is a humorless Christian prig. On the plane to Christchurch, she meets and falls in love with Frank (Waldemar Torenstra), who lost his family in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp and is moving to New Zealand to be a farmer. The hunky stuff of bodice-ripping fantasy, Frank maintains a correspondence with Ada after she becomes the unhappily married mother of several children.

As the wheel of fortune spins, the sensible Marjorie (Elise Schaap) wins the marital lottery and lands an attractive, loving husband. But their bliss is cut short when a complicated pregnancy leaves her childless and infertile. Esther rushes to the rescue and gives her baby to the couple to raise as their own. What tensions exist among the three friends over the years mostly have to do with Esther’s possessiveness of her biological son whenever they all reunite.

“Bride Flight” is a nice, well-behaved period piece that looks pretty and smells fresh and sweet when brought home from the cinematic laundry. On closer inspection, however, it is riddled with spots and stains and even a few holes.

“Bride Flight” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has sexual situations and nudity.

BRIDE FLIGHT

Opens on Friday in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Directed by Ben Sombogaart; written by Marieke van der Pol; director of photography, Piotr Kukla; produced by Anton Smit and Hanneke Niens; released by Music Box Films. In Dutch and English, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes.

WITH: Karina Smulders (Ada), Elise Schaap (Marjorie), Anna Drijver (Esther), Waldemar Torenstra (Frank), Rutger Hauer (Old Frank), Pleuni Touw (Old Ada), Petra Laseur (Old Marjorie), Willeke van Ammelrooy (Old Esther) and Mattijn Hartemink (Hans).