Well-groomed front gardens, a sparkling clean house and a small family with a classic understanding of roles are simply part of the spy-provincial petty bourgeoisy, which Hollywood has repeatedly exposed as a radiant facades in recent decades, behind which deep and dark abysses. But unlike David Lynch in “Blue Velvet” (1986) or Sam Mendes in “American Beauty” (1999), the director Mimi Cave, celebrated for her wild Romcom Horror Generix “Fresh”, puts in “Holland“On a postcard idyll with a windmill and flowering tulip fields. However, the plot is not located in the title-giving country, but in the small town of the same name in the US state of Michigan (in which some was also shot).
But the thriller created exclusively for Amazon Prime Video, despite the settings enriched with plenty of Dutch culture kitsch, can never compete with these (modern) film classics-on the contrary: at their world premiere at the SXSW festival in early March 2025, the film was largely rejected by the US critics. And rightly so: Even if the well-employed Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (most recently seen in “Baby Girl” in the cinema) is a strong performance as a jealous “Ms. Antje” house woman, she simply does not arrive against the only phase-exciting script-especially since this also turns out to be quite a cheese in the last third.
Nicole Kidman in the Dutch traditional costume outfit is certainly reason enough for some to take a look at Amazon Prime Video.
The housekeeper Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman), together with her husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) and her son Harry (Jude Hill), leads a happy life in the small town of Holland, Michigan. When, at ophthalmologist Fred, supposed business trips and external appointments are piling up, Nancy becomes suspicious: Does her husband have a secret affair? Together with her colleague Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), she secretly researches. The two come closer – but at this moment they don't guess how far they are really wrong with their guesses to Fred's double life …
Andrew Sodroski's script for “Holland” was already on the top position of the so -called Black List with the supposedly best, still undisable screenplays of Hollywood. Why the author's work, which later also wrote the Netflix series “Manhunt”, was acted so hot at the time until the first flap fell for the film adaptation in May 2023 (a whopping ten years later) remains puzzling. On the one hand, it offers quite successful suspense when Nancy and Dave, for example, succeed in escaping with trouble and need during a nightly slump into Fred's practice. On the other hand, after the exciting first half, the plot enriched with meaningful, but still largely unused motifs are becoming increasingly fatigue.
Too much is in nothing
So Fred and son Harry in the basement in the basement pursue excessively model building as a hobby-which is good for a few pretty recordings from the moving model railway, but with the exception of a mini sign that is found in the artificial landscape (and nancy animated to research). A hinted sub-plot for an ex-bus driver dismissed by drunkenness who abuses his son and insulted Dave racistically after a handful of scenes without having to play a role again at some point.
The situation in a (pseudo) Dutch folklore context-including traditional costume parade-is also in no way related to Fred's secret. In the last third, this is lively, without contextualization, without background or further explanations – and leads to several, also badly constructed twists. Even Mimi Caves decision to move the action to the year 2000 seems little thought: slow internet connections in online searches and beeping nokia phones contribute only very little to (intended) increase in voltage despite occasional nostalgia exclusion.
Is there a hint from the secret of husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) in his beloved model building miniature?
After all, the cut by Martin Pensa (Oscarnominated for “Dallas Buyers Club”) with many strikingly soft overlays and match cuts breathes the refined, stylistic elegance of classic Hollywood film noirs. While Matthew Macfadyen (“Deadpool & Wolverine”) is simply too harmless and Blased and Gael García Bernal (“Station Eleven”) as a dialogue sparring partner and inexperienced “accomplice” from Nancy does little to do anyway, Nicole Kidman once again delivers a committed performance. Even with small gestures-for example, if you “drown” your chopping roast with a ketchup sauce or soaks back with Dave before the first kiss-she succeeds in a strong and realistic portrait of a actually self-confident woman who struggles with the certainty of her petty bourgeois existence.
Conclusion: In the first half of the film, “Holland” and a. Due to the prominent model railway motif and an increasing voltage curve, which the half-baked thriller cannot even compensate for afterwards. A lot of wasted potential – also and precisely because of a usual strong Nicole Kidman.