“A small-town thriller with out thrills” – Overview: Holland (2025)

Reviewer Flickchart Rating: 3,529 / 5,722 (38%)

Welcome to Holland, Michigan, courtesy of Amazon Prime and famed music video director Mimi Cave. It’s her follow-up to her debut function, the cannibal horror Contemporary (2022), and it stars skilled discontented spouse Nicole Kidman (Babygirl, 2024), the ever-present Gael Garcia Bernal (Cassandro, 2023), and a beloved Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen). Are Cave and firm capable of seize a foreboding whimsy, or does it really feel as stale as a lot of Kidman’s film marriages? 

Nancy Vandergroot (Kidman) is a home-ec trainer in 2000s midwestern-ville. Her husband Fred (Macfadyen) is a trusted optometrist who shares a ardour for toy trains with their son Harry. Nancy is remoted in her life, college, and residential, and we meet her as she is starting to progressively unravel. She has a good friend at work, store trainer Dave Delgado (Bernal). Instantly we see their connection; she turns into animated round Dave as the 2 share gossip and take heed to true crime radio broadcasts. Nancy begins to be suspicious as Fred travels to conferences regularly, and never all of his particulars instantly add up. Dave and Nancy start their very own detective work to see what precisely Fred is as much as. 

There may be nothing distinctive in regards to the setup to Holland, from the frustrated-wife storyline in an prosperous small city premise to the usual beats the story takes. Cave and director of pictures Pawel Pogorzelski (Ari Aster’s common DP) create a wealthy visible world that teeters on darkish whimsy à la The Stepford Wives (2004), however at all times handle to maintain the movie firmly grounded in turn-of-the-century center America. Sadly, nothing in regards to the story or characterizations is distinctive or partaking. All the pieces seems like an early draft earlier than the author (first timer Andrew Sodroski) went again to “add shade” to it. 

Holland comes throughout as a dull, unloved product that leaves it to its forged to make these folks intriguing. Cave appears solely centered on making Holland visually interesting, however with out a robust sense of character her makes an attempt usually fail. Kidman and Bernal are at all times welcome display presences, however their chemistry in Holland is elementary and the thriller on the coronary heart of the story unfolds with a whimper.

Holland is for Kidman die-hards and people who love any type of light-hearted, small-town thriller. In any other case, it’s a thriller with out thrills, a thriller that isn’t intriguing, and a automobile for flat characters that lack character.