Director Mimi Cave is used to telling stories where things aren’t exactly what they seem. In her sharp directorial debut Fresh, a grocery story meet-cute turns into a cannibalism-fueled nightmare. In Holland, her sophomore feature, Nicole Kidman stars as Nancy Vandergroot, a homemaker with a seemingly idyllic life in Holland, Michigan whose life is upended by a major secret.
Cave gives the town a technicolor sheen with fields of tulips and quaint cottage-like homes. It’s the perfect place really. But the delusion of perfection leads Nancy down rabbit holes that she would normally leave unexplored. That’s exactly why she begins to suspect that her husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) may be having an affair.
Holland has the feel of a suburban melodrama before evolving into a trippy mystery that pulls the rug out from under you. Cave’s ᴀssured direction creates a sickly sweet, dreamy world, and though its story sometimes lacks the dynamism it needs to fully connect, Kidman, unsurprisingly, carries the film over the finish line.
Holland Morphs Into A Full-Blown Nightmare
It Just Happens A Little Late
Immediately, we can tell something is off about Holland, Michigan. Dutch-influenced, the town feels like a theme park facade, as if the houses are cardboard cutouts, the tulips made of plastic – a simulacrum of suburbia. In a way, it exists out of time (though the real time period this film takes place in is the very early 2000s). This feeling is underscored by a mᴀssive replica train set in the Vandergroot’s garage, which Fred meticulously oversees.
Nancy, too, seems to exist outside any firm reality – her naïveté reads almost like forgetfulness, a feeling that she may be untethered to the world around her, floating above her own life. She’s happy to be a housewife and teacher, but sometimes it feels more like she’s going through the motions – making meatloaf, doting on her young son Harry (Jude Hill), sending Fred off with a kiss as he goes on business trips.
Kidman is the heart of Holland, though, and she more than delivers in the role. Shades of To Die For and The Stepford Wives emerge from her performance and the best parts of Holland are seeing Nancy’s relationship with fellow teacher Dave (Gael Garcia Bernal) evolve as the film shifts from off-kilter comedy to classic caper.
Holland deals in multiple genres, but the real balancing act here is her lead performance. Kidman is perhaps the hardest working star in Hollywood today, having starred in about 11 films and 6 television shows since 2018. Kidman throws herself into these roles without hesitation, tackling everything from soapy streaming series to prestige television, genre fare, and independent films.
Holland shifts into something more unsettling in its third act, going to some grotesque places.
This movie is like all of those wrapped into one. The story itself struggles to hit the right notes sometimes, elongating its first act before rushing through its third. It’s lightest on its feet right in the middle when Dave and Nancy are investigating her husband before the big reveal. But once it revs up, it never slows down, shifting into something more unsettling in its third act.
The grotesque imagery makes for an interesting clash with the picturesque visual language Cave established, but it’s almost as if she doesn’t want to linger on it for too long. I found myself wanting more of it, wishing Holland would linger in the ugliness that was hiding beneath the placid surface of its namesake town. Still, even when flawed, the sheer force of Kidman’s performance brings the film home and Cave has proven once again she’s a director to watch.
Holland premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. The film will release on Prime Video on March 27.
