Movies like Holland are typically Nicole Kidman’s bread and butter. Mimi Cave’s follow-up to the horror-comedy Fresh is a Fargo-like caper film with extramarital affairs, murder, a unique sense of fashion, and an unlikely setting, all of which are right in the Oscar-winning actress’ wheelhouse. If you’ve ever been to the town of Holland, Michigan, you’ll know it’s a setting ripe for a movie setting. It has a distinctly European feel to it, complete with German stores and windmills.
The movie Holland fails its namesake. It’s a movie that may look pretty and feature pretty faces but is also half-baked. It simultaneously has many ideas and none at all, with nothing to say. It’s a massive disappointment, especially if you consider the vast amount of talent both in front of and behind the camera. On paper, Holland should work. Once you watch the movie, you’ll immediately understand why the script has been on the back burner for over a decade.
What Is ‘Holland’ About?

Holland begins with Nancy Vandergroot (Kidman), a teacher living in Holland, Michigan, interrogating her son’s babysitter, Candy Deboer (Rachel Sennott in a cameo role), for stealing an earring from her home before firing her. Nancy’s 13-year-old son, Harry (Jude Hill), is disappointed, which further strains their relationship. Meanwhile, Nancy’s husband, Fred (Matthew Macfadyen), an optometrist, is either away on a so-called “work trip” or obsessively working on his model train set and diorama of their hometown.
Nancy begins to suspect that Fred is hiding something. After all, how many work trips can an optometrist even go on? Alongside her dotting co-worker Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), Nancy stakes an investigation, believing that Fred is caught up in an extramarital affair. The investigation seems to be going nowhere, outside of them having an affair of their own, but just as their trail runs clean, the two make a startling discovery, one that will change the course of Nancy’s life forever.
Nicole Kidman’s Commitment Isn’t Enough To Save ‘Holland’

Kidman is without question one of the most reliable performers in Hollywood, and in Holland, she elevates the half-baked script as Nancy. She juggles the movie’s dramatic, surreal beats with moments of black comedy, and for as messy as the movie is, she maintains her composure, especially as we see Nancy having strange nightmares of walking through Fred’s trainset. Never once does Kidman feel like she’s phoning it in, she’s clearly giving this role her all.
Unfortunately, the character itself is a bit of an odd duck. Holland plays out as a mystery that telegraphs its obvious “big twist” early on in the film. We are ultimately stuck playing the waiting game for a large majority of the film with pointless scenes involving Nancy breaking into her husband’s office, flirting with Dave, and just simply looking out her car window. This results in sluggish pacing for the majority of the movie, and by the time the curtain is pulled and things begin to get interesting, the movie quickly rushes to a conclusion. It’s such a shame, as the fault mainly falls on the screenplay, which feels as if it was never revised past its first draft.
Macfadyen and Bernal are clearly having a ball with their roles; the latter in particular gets to play against type as a more insecure and geeky teacher. Although there’s not much to their characters, what is left on the page lacks substance. The movie also tries to shed light on Dave experiencing racism, but outside one scene, nothing is ever done with it and there’s zero nuance, it is simply just acknowledging that things in Holland aren’t what they seem to be.
‘Holland’ Looks Pretty, But That’s About It

Image via Amazon MGM Studios

Mimi Cave’s directorial debut Fresh was excellent and showed that Cave has an abundance of personality, both visually and subtextually. It’s not an argument that Holland is visually lush. Cave nails the movie’s 2000 setting, and there are moments where it feels like we are watching a movie from another decade, not made strictly for streaming.
Pawel Pogorzelski, who previously worked with Cave on Fresh as well as serving as the DP on movies like Hereditary and Midsommar, does an impressive job in helping set the movie’s scale. Whether it be the sweeping shots through Frank’s model train village or even the suburban streets at night, despite the stale plotting, the technical aspects keep you interested, at least for a little bit. The script is just so derivative of much better movies. There have been so many movies that have ridden off Fargo’s coattails, especially since the FX series has reignited its popularity. Some of these movies have done this well, but Holland isn’t one of those films. The setting is mainly used only for the movie’s visual quirks, but the story doesn’t let the town exist as its own character. If you strip the plotting away to its bare bones, it could have been set anywhere.
A lot of the issues in Holland could have been fixed with one or two additional rewrites. Cave’s sophomore feature unfortunately disappoints after such a promising first film. It’s evident Cave tried her best to steer the ship, but the story feels aimless, and moments after things get interesting, Holland cuts to credits, leaving you equally puzzled and burned out.
Holland premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival and premieres on Prime Video on March 27.

Holland

Despite the talent behind and in front of the camera, Holland is a messy Fargo knock-off that doesn’t get interesting until its far too late.

Release Date

March 27, 2025

Runtime

108 minutes

Director

Mimi Cave

Writers

Andrew Sodroski

Pros & Cons

As expected, Nicole Kidman is great.
Pawel Pogorzelski’s cinematography is excellent and matches the movie’s vibe.

The plot feels aimless, and the twist is revealed far too late in the movie.
A subplot involving Gael Garcia Bernal’s character feels underdeveloped.
Most of the characters feel flat.