2 out of 5 stars

Nancy Vandergroot’s (Nicole Kidman) opening voiceover narration reveals she’s a happy and loyal resident of Holland, Michigan. “Every day I get to wake up in the best place on Earth,” she convinces herself. The film never makes you truly believe this little village is anything less than creepy.

She lives with her optician husband, Fred (Matthew Macfadyen), and her 13-year-old son, Harry (Jude Hill). Everything is sinister in how perfect it is in this uncanny little town that’s a little too loyal to its Dutch roots. Filled with windmills, tulips, and clogs, it’s less a rural village and more a theme park dedicated to the Netherlands.

Something immediately feels off about this world, which doesn’t appear to be set in any specific time and place. While indicators reveal Holland is set in the early-2000s, there’s always an uneasiness about where and when the characters are. Nancy teaches life skills at high school, and the biggest drama in her life is when her bored babysitter steals one of her pearl earrings. Her life unravels when she becomes suspicious about her well-respected husband going away on one too many business trips. So, the buttoned-up teacher starts to investigate whether he is having an affair or something more disturbing is going on.

She teams up with co-worker Dave (Gael García Bernal) to investigate what is going on with Fred and what happens on these trips away from home. He’s always held a candle for Nancy, so he is happy to try and reveal what her husband is up to. The strangest thing about casting Bernal is that the Mexican actor is the only non-white face in Holland, yet this isn’t really addressed.

Nancy is haunted by nightmares hinting that things aren’t as perfect as they seem. These vivid and often violent visions are slightly let down by dated VFX, which takes the edge off the scares. Scenes of a model village pepper proceedings but never pay off. Some of the cinematography connected with these Dutch-obsessed festivities, especially Kidman dancing in her traditional costume and plaits, is eerier than it likely intends to be. It’s never clear whether these visuals are intentionally disconcerting or if audiences are looking for clues in the hopes of Holland being a better film than it actually is.

The first hour of Holland is a lacklustre thriller about a paranoid woman hunting down the truth about her husband. It’s over an hour into proceedings before the film starts to hint at a sinister twist. Sadly, any third act excitement is a mere tease that never fulfils its promise.

Holland leaves too many questions unanswered, considering the slow pacing and almost two-hour runtime. Nancy’s backstory is merely glanced at, and the inner workings of Holland are only hinted towards. It’s hard to tell if this is trying to build up a mystery that never happens or if it is just poor writing. The setting, the audience’s introduction to the city, and the people who live there are probably the only effective parts of Holland.

Mimi Cave’s follow-up to Fresh (2022) is a disappointment. That horror romance felt like the start of a modern, exciting filmmaker’s career. Next to no DNA from her debut movie present in Holland, and she’s lucky to have incredible cinematographers, editors, and actors to help bring this messy screenplay to whatever life there is.

The ideas are good, but the execution isn’t. Screenwriter Andrew Sodorski’s script, which was on the Blacklist of the most-liked film screenplays not yet produced for over a decade, definitely has potential. The problem is, the story builds up at a snail’s pace, leaving red herrings that promise a terrifying reveal. At some point, the film abandons the creepy tone and takes a cheap, obvious direction. If you’re someone who likes to guess the plot twist, the version in your head is likely more compelling than the choices Sodorski and Cave make.

Nicole Kidman is at her ‘Elizabeth Taylor neurotic wife’ best, however, even when the script doesn’t require that intensity. The actress gives the role more emotion and feeling than the writing deserves, which sometimes can be unbalanced. Bernal understands how to be the understated supporting actor to a big performance like Kidman’s. Macfadyen reuses the black comedy smarm of his Succession (2018-2023) character, Tom Wambsgans, to decent effect here. Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies) and Lennon Parham also make minor appearances but are wasted in small side plots.

The real MVP of Holland is cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski (Hereditary). He adds atmospheric layers to this film, which could fool you into thinking you are about to watch something much better than the result. It’s Pogorzelski’s vision that keeps audiences engaged, even if it is hoping for something better than the realities.

If Holland is trying to say something about the banality of suburbia or the resurgence of the trad wife lifestyle, it fails to do so. When the credits roll, you may find yourself wondering what the point of all of it was. Somewhere in his script is a wonderful Lynchian horror that mixes The Stepford Wives (1975), Blue Velvet (1986), and The Village (2004). Sadly, the end result is a poorly judged, overthought, under-delivering thriller that’ll struggle to keep audiences engaged.

USA | 2025 | 108 MINUTES | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

director: Mimi Cave.
writer: Andrew Sodorski.
starring: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Macfadyen, Gael Garcia Bernal, Jude Hill, Jeff Pope, Lennon Parham & Rachel Sennott.