‘Holland’ review: Nicole Kidman is a desperate housewife in Mimi Cave’s suburban thriller

Dir: Mimi Cave. US. 2024. 108mins 

In Holland, Nicole Kidman performs a troubled suburbanite satisfied her husband is having an affair — a suspicion that this intriguing, in the end unsuccessful movie by no means totally solutions. Director Mimi Cave’s follow-up to Contemporary is a prickly character research that doubles as a psychological thriller, set in a too-good-to-be-true tranquil American neighbourhood that predictably accommodates twisted secrets and techniques beneath the inviting floor. Regardless of the story’s cliched milieu, Kidman instructions the viewer’s consideration as a deeply sad soul who could also be inventing her personal distress.

The movie’s off-kilter tone and the beguiling opacity of the characters solely enrapture for therefore lengthy

After debuting at SXSW, the movie will stream on Prime Video on March 27. Audiences will tune in due to Kidman, though the ensemble additionally contains high-quality supporting work from Matthew Macfadyen and Gael Garcia Bernal. Those that noticed Cave’s first movie, 2022’s grotesque, sarcastic horror-thriller Contemporary, will recognize the director’s continued fascination with weird romantic eventualities, and Holland’s acquainted trappings would possibly encourage the curious to provide this opaque drama a attempt.

The movie introduces us to Nancy (Kidman), a bubbly however brittle instructor who lives in cosy Holland, Michigan, together with her optometrist husband Fred (Macfadyen) and younger son Harry (Jude Hill). All the things in her world is fantastic till she begins to doubt Fred’s constancy, believing he’s participating in a tryst throughout out-of-town work journeys. Roping in her good friend and fellow instructor Dave (Garcia Bernal) to help, Nancy hatches an elaborate plan to catch Fred — whereas creating emotions for the clearly smitten Dave.

From American Magnificence to Little Kids and the Kidman HBO sequence Large Little Lies, movie and tv dramas have repeatedly warned us that picturesque suburbs can conceal rotten realities. Written by Andrew Sodroski, Holland is at its weakest when it espouses this well-worn perception, failing to search out a lot new to say about these lives of quiet desperation. (Pawel Pogorzelski’s pristine cinematography and Alex Somers’ flowery rating emphasise Holland’s dreamlike attraction — which, we are going to rapidly study, is generally a mirage.)

However Holland enters rather more fertile narrative terrain as soon as Nancy plots to reveal Fred’s affair. Her proof is pretty flimsy, however Holland follows alongside as she places collectively the items that, she is bound, will show his unfaithfulness. As a result of Dave pines for Nancy, he barely protests, merely comfortable to be her confidant on this journey — particularly when it turns into obvious that she additionally feels a spark between them. However even right here, Cave lets the viewers wrestle with uncertainty. Does Nancy actually have emotions for Dave? Or has the joy of this covert investigation artificially heightened her attraction to him? 

Kidman’s refined efficiency leaves these questions unanswered, in addition to many others. The extra time we spend with Nancy, the much less we really feel that we all know her. Holland reveals little about Nancy’s backstory, however a throwaway remark about her going by a “darkish time” earlier than assembly Fred suggests a disturbing discontent behind the character’s excellent smile — and maybe a nagging tendency towards self-sabotage when her life turns into too static. (Tellingly, Holland opens with Nancy accusing the babysitter of stealing a single earring — a ridiculous cost contemplating that the much more possible rationalization is that Nancy merely misplaced it.)

Led by a protagonist whose judgment we’re unsure we are able to belief, Holland has its arresting moments. As Nancy and Dave’s personal fling intensifies, her motives stay teasingly unclear. Garcia Bernal expertly performs a weak-willed man who has little to cling to aside from his infatuation for Nancy. As for Macfadyen, his Fred is a splendidly ambiguous determine. Exasperated however loving, the character appears indifferent sufficient that perhaps he’s dishonest on his partner — then once more, perhaps he has simply come to simply accept that his irrational spouse wants a bit house when she begins spiralling. 

Sadly, the movie’s off-kilter tone and the characters’ beguiling opacity solely enrapture for therefore lengthy. The fixed commentary concerning the banality of suburbia deadens the story, and a few late-reel twists fail to fulfill. Though Holland’s characters stay for his or her secrets and techniques, they aren’t as startling because the filmmakers wish to consider.