Mimi Cave burst onto the scene with her buzzy debut Fresh (2022). The chilling horror film from Hulu, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan, was the second-most-watched film the week of its release and heralded the arrival of a promising new directorial voice.
When the announcement came that Cave’s follow-up would star Nicole Kidman, Holland (2025) immediately jumped to the top of my watchlist. Kidman as a mother whose perception of picturesque suburbia crumbles against the backdrop of a tulip festival? Sign me up!
Kidman stars as Nancy Vandergroot, a teacher and mother with a seemingly idyllic life in the small town of Holland, Michigan. As the town gears up for its annual Tulip Time Festival, she begins to suspect that her husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) is hiding a whole piece of his life from her. With the help of fellow teacher Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), Nancy attempts to uncover the truth.
We’ve seen this film before. In fact, we’ve seen Kidman in this film before. Yet, she doesn’t phone it in and crafts Nancy from the ground up in a sprawling, manic performance. Kidman takes Nancy’s nervous energy and uplifts the dark comedy beats the script desperately wants to pull off. There’s a campy wink behind her unraveling, but, as her reality shatters, Nancy becomes severe and desperate.
Macfadyen and García Bernal are always welcome sights on screen and anchor their respective characters despite not having much to latch on to. Any sense of depth with these characters comes from the riveting performers.
Cave’s visual style remains distinct and intriguing from the jump. As the community gets their photos taken for the Tulip Time festival, Cave utilizes bright, over-exposed camera flashes, immediately injecting the audience with uneasiness. With these simple shots, we immediately know where the story is headed without being beaten over the head with the ideas. The shots are well-composed and rife with tension.
There’s a scene where Fred and Dave meet for the first time at an eye exam at Fred’s office. The construction of the meeting is simple enough. Each man occupies the opposite side of the frame and stares into the other’s eyes. The only movement comes when Fred holds Dave’s neck to keep him still while he administers eyedrops. The scene palpitates with tension and sucks the air out of the room. You’re left squirming and desperate to leave the room, like Dave. It’s expertly and simply constructed by Cave.
Another standout moment is a hallucinogenic dream sequence that sees Nancy chasing her son (Jude Hill) through the town. Visually stimulating, Cave gets to play around and demonstrate her command of a showier and more intricate set piece. It’s easily the most exciting part of the film as Nancy stumbles through a sea of bodies that turns into a literal sea as her son evades her grasp.
What makes Holland such a frustrating watch is the fact that we have all these artists executing solid work and elevating the material at hand, yet they are all completely undermined by Andrew Sodorski’s baffling screenplay.
Holland struggles with an identity crisis. It wants to be a twisty, suburban thriller and a dark, comedic satire and to dismantle the harmful portrait of suburbia and the way communities isolate each other. It does none of these things particularly well.
To put it in Kidman terms, Sodorski seems to be aiming for the deliciously sinister vibe of To Die For (1995) and lands somewhere below The Stepford Wives (2004). The ridiculous dialogue is clearly meant to be funny but ultimately derails the tension, including an argument about someone stealing bacon and “He’s screwing the Bologna Queen.” The cast does their best to sell it, and sometimes they do, but it feels more distracting than funny.
Sodorski then poses questions of otherness and how suburbia alienates people unfamiliar, specifically with the character of Dave. However, that theme is introduced in one brief scene and never addressed again.
This is not the only instance of a hastily introduced element that is quickly discarded. Rachel Sennott appears as Candy only to disappear after forty-five seconds. There’s also a major reveal that comes after only being introduced to this plot thread mere minutes before it happens.
Sodorski has interesting ideas and concepts but lacks focus on execution. The plodding pace drags us along so that by the time I got to the climax, I didn’t care anymore after trying to decipher the film’s core for what felt like hours (the film is only 108 minutes).
Much like suburbia itself, Holland seemed like a good idea in theory. However, upon close examination, something messy and bland at its center leaves everyone involved underserved and deserving better.
Review Courtesy of Adam Patla
Image Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video via Screen Rant