HOLLAND (AMAZON PRIME) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: In this wildly unpredictable thriller, Nicole Kidman is the meticulous Nancy Vandergroot, a teacher and homemaker whose picture-perfect life with her community pillar husband and son in tulip-filled Holland, Michigan tumbles into a twisted tale. Nancy and her friendly colleague become suspicious of a secret, only to discover nothing in their lives is what it seems.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Thirty minutes into Holland, we are pretty sure you have no idea where its heading. Is Nicole Kidman playing again a Stepford wife? Is this going to be a Fatal Attraction kind of thriller? Or is it going to turn into a fetish cannibal horror in the vein of Fresh? 


Kidman plays Nancy Vandergroot, a school teacher who resides in the best place on earth, Holland Michigan, a Dutch inspired small town. She is married to Fred (Matthew Macfadyen), her optometrist husband and has a 13 year old son, Harry (Jude Hill).

Her life as a Midwestern wife is at best monotonous. Fred seems to be a nice chap, hardworking, loves to play with his train and town models though he is always away at conferences. So one day, Nancy confides in her colleague, Dave (Gael García Bernal) that she suspects Fred might be having an affair. Thus Dave plays along, to seek out evidence of Fred’s infidelity with Nancy only to discover there are more to the town’s eye doctor.

Mimi Cave’s follow up to Fresh is well, for a lack of a better word, plain. Of course, Cave’s penchant for visual is still here though the narrative lacks the energy and suspense to keep things going. For the most part, it plays like a dark comedy mostly without the comedy. It’s fun to watch Nancy and Dave tip-toeing around for clues yet the eventual attraction between the two seems expected. The faithful looking for the unfaithful turned out to be unfaithful if this makes any sense.

The story first introduces Nancy as sort of an unreliable, overly suspicious character so perhaps the paranoia is fake after all. She too has a backstory which is hinted but never reveal. And who exactly is Dave? The Mexican loner teacher who came alone into town. There’s never any real convincing setup to the characters or the buildup to the final twist. It takes a long while for the revelation and sadly doesn’t comes across as shocking or twisty. Just bloody perhaps.

Kidman has the star power to keep you vested despite the banality. Gael García Bernal is serviceable as the platonic friend turned lover while Matthew Macfadyen has the juiciest role of all three. While not exactly as wooden as a Dutch clog, Cave needs to work harder to deliver something as compelling as her first feature. Holland simply lacks a distinct flavour to be an engaging affair.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee