Holland review: Nicole Kidmans latest feels oddly familiar
Nicole Kidman headlines the trippy mystery Holland, Mimi Cave's follow-up to the psychological thriller Fresh. Named for the picture-perfect town in which it is set, the movie aims to recapture an era of American innocence before tossing its characters into a downward spiral of disillusionment and violence.
Watching Kidman play a happy homemaker in a pretty suburban town might swiftly recall Frank Oz's underrated 2004 comedy remake of The Stepford Wives, which Kidman starred in. Or perhaps seeing Kidman surrender her body to a hot husband who sexually bores her might recall Halina Reijn's erotic thriller Babygirl.
Unfortunately, while Holland is constructed with interesting pieces, Cave's vision is murky and her pacing is agonizingly slow. Amid an intriguing world with a Lynchian threat of villainy lurking under a serene suburban surface, Holland struggles to come together to become greater than the sum of its parts.
But admittedly, the parts on their own are intriguing.
Holland plays as a pre-9/11 allegory.
At first glance — or from the trailer — you might think Holland is set in the heyday of American conservative nostalgia, the 1950s, a time when housewives wore prim dresses while tending to their pretty homes and their men brought home the bacon to 2.5 well-behaved cherry-cheeked children. However, screenwriter Andrew Sodroski pivots from this expected setting to the year 2000.
The cozy town of Holland still looks '50s idyllic in many ways, like the charming Tulip Time festival celebrating its Dutch roots with wooden clog dancing and traditional costumes. Happy homemaker Nancy Vandergroot (Kidman) routinely makes meatloaf for her optometrist husband Fred (Succession's Matthew Macfadyen) and her blonde grade-schooler Harry (Jude Hill). And for added saccharine, the shared hobby between father and son is building a model train set, complete with tiny houses, teeny figures of people, a towering windmill, and the teeniest tulips.
However, elements of a more modern world creep in, like the use of cellphones, the mall rat hairstyle of tutor Candy (Rachel Sennott), and the comedy classic Mrs. Doubtfire playing on television. These elements cleverly tug at the central tension of the film — a perceived "classic" way of American living and the messy modern elements that threaten to ruin this perfect facade. In that vein, the first action Nancy takes in the film is to accuse Candy of stealing from her, tossing the girl into a panic before being cast out of the house (and, sadly for Sennott fans, out of the movie). In response, young Harry curses his mother out, a jarring reaction from a little boy who looks like the Precious Moments figurines on the glass shelving behind him.
Like in Olivia Wilde's underwhelming Don't Worry Darling, Holland's heroine tries to ignore the fact there's something wrong with her seemingly ideal life. But she is plagued by bad dreams, images of her son slipping away from her as strangers fall dead at her feet. These visions are not blatantly tied to 9/11, and yet the chronological setting of the film plays as another clue that something big and traumatic is around the corner, ready to smash this cozy yet fragile sense of American safety to smithereens.
Nicole Kidman and Gael García Bernal are a mismatched comedy duo.
Occasionally, Holland asserts that Nancy does have a job outside the home, teaching home economics at the local high school. There, she befriends fellow teacher Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), a caring newcomer to Holland, who — unlike her husband — hears out her suspicions. Could Fred be cheating on her? In her quest for answers, she grows closer to Dave and a truth that will change her family forever.
While the mystery element aims for tension, Cave and Sodroski paint Holland as a satire, mocking the glossy American concept of idyllic small-town life with a vibrant color palette and beaming, oblivious locals. However, while you can see Blue Velvet influences in Cave's approach to unearthing the bloody underbelly of such a seemingly quaint place, her visual style isn't heightened enough to keep us entranced. Likewise, the quirky comedy of Kidman and Bernal never quite lands, as their dynamic isn't that of a clown and a straight man, but rather two awkward people trying to repress their lust for each other. Odder still, their attraction — while inevitable — feels inert.
This disconnect is particularly clear in a sequence where Dave is attacked by a local drunk, who hurls racial slurs at him. While Ben confronts his attacker, Nancy hides, not wanting to be seen with a man who is not her husband. As such, the scene not only reveals once again how Holland is not the friendly Eden that Nancy imagined, but also that she is craven. And yet the scene comes and goes so fast with no consequence that it ultimately feels like an afterthought.
In general, there's an agonizing lifelessness to Holland, which means by the time Cave actually gets to her juicy reveals, the film is already dead in the water. Everything that follows, whether it gets gory, weird, or tragic, doesn't shock or awe. Perhaps part of the problem is that the big twist is so obvious that its reveal is disappointing. More than anything else, the reveal exposes Holland to be little more than a cliched Lifetime movie led by A-listers — and not in the fun way of Will Ferrell's A Deadly Adoption.
Holland just isn't strange or shocking enough to live up to its influences. The jokes don't land. The horror doesn't penetrate, and the twists don't thrill. Like a postcard, Holland is intriguing and pretty, but ultimately flat.
Holland was reviewed out of its premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. The movie premieres on Prime Video on March 27.