HOLLAND
(director: Mimi Cave; screenwriter: Andrew Sodroski; cinematographer: Pawel Pogorzelski; editor: Martin Pensa; music: Alex Somers; cast: Nicole Kidman (Nancy Vandergroot), Matthew Macfadyen (Fred Vandergroot), Jude Hill (Harry Vandergroot), Gael García Bernal (Dave Delgado), Rachel Sennott (Candy); Runtime: 108; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Kate Churchill, Peter Dealbert, Nicole Kidman, Per Saar; Amazon Prime Video; 2025)
“A twisty domestic thriller.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A twisty domestic thriller looking to expose how life in the suburbs is not as good as it’s made out to be by society. It’s stylishly directed with a visual flair by the former music video director Mimi Cave (“Fresh”), though it is ambiguously written from a script by Andrew Sodroski that was not green-lighted as it sat on the shelf for at least a decade.
The story is set in 2000, in Holland, Michigan, the scenic town famous for its tulip festival. It’s a quiet lakeside small town founded by the descendants of Dutch immigrants. The town looks touristy, as its modeled after an 18th-century Dutch village that’s filled with windmills, tulip fields and make-believe canal houses.
Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman), a high school home economics teacher, with a pristine reputation, whose rich smile projects an image of the perfect suburban wife. In one scene, she gets unstrung when not able to find her pearl earring and falsely accuses the baby-sitter (Rachel Sennott) of taking it.
Nancy’s most paranoid about her optometrist husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen), a respected pillar in the community. She suspects Fred is cheating on her when he goes on business trips, but has no proof. When home, Fred enjoys playing with his precocious young son Harry (Jude Hill) in the basement with the kid’s model trains.
The entitled Nancy feels unfulfilled living such an empty life, in such a dull town. To relieve her boredom and anxiety she hooks up with her hot Mexican immigrant shop teacher colleague Dave (Gael García Bernal), and consoles him when he experiences racism. They together investigate who her hubby might be seeing by stalking him. Their bonding leads to an affair.
There’s a shocking bloody twist in the end that asks us to ponder if we can ever really know someone.
The film compares in tone to ’90 thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, but this one is a dud.
Kidman gives a smart manic performance that carries a wilted film just so far over the tulips before it tramples them.
It played at the SXSW Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 3/18/2025 GRADE: C+
dennisschwartzreviews.com