Holland (2025)

Holland (2025)

It’s become difficult for me to see a film with Nicole Kidman. I’ve adored this actress for years, but I have to say that most of her films are really bad… and this is one of them, although it’s still better than Babygirl (2024). What’s more, I’m very saddened by her cosmetic surgery, given that she was one of the most beautiful women ever, but felt the need to change that. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but apparently I needed to!

Right! On to the film!!!

It didn’t make it to the cinema. So it’s a DTA (direct to Amazon).
Holland, Michigan, a haven of peace, a community in the colours of Holland.

American psychological thriller directed by Mimi Cave, written by Andrew Sodroski and starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Macfadyen and Gael García Bernal. The story follows a woman (Kidman) who thought she had the perfect family life, but that turns out to be a twist after she sets out to find out if her husband (Mcfayden) is cheating on her, leading to unexpected consequences.

Before seeing this film, I read a big spoiler in a synopsis… and I do think that spoiled a lot of the fun for me. It’s an interesting film because it describes the gap between the perfect world at the beginning, the doubts and suspicions that follow and the nightmare at the end, which can be very violent. A resolutely strange film in its progression.

Some films include extracts from other films. Here we see Leslie Nielsen in Police Squad! (1982) in the famous hilarious mime scene.

Songs in American films are rarely left to chance either. We’ll hear Annie Lennox‘s ‘No More “I Love You’s” in this feature, as well as “Gonna Get Along Without You Now” sung by Skeeter Davis.

Obviously, given the president they have in the USA, it’s normal for hatred of Mexicans to come out in films, and this is one of them.

After the biting Fresh, Mimi Cave has produced a domestic thriller that vacillates between satire and self-parody, without ever choosing.

Nicole Kidman is Nancy Vandergroot, teacher, model wife and, incidentally, queen of paranoia. She suspects her husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen, barely glimpsed) of infidelity. So, without missing a beat, she embarks on a shaky investigation with Dave (Gael García Bernal), a colleague whose main contribution is to sigh with admiration in front of her. Suffice to say, the suspense is breathtaking… comparable to a rainy Sunday afternoon in front of a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle!

Mimi Cave takes great care with the setting, the shots and the colours. It’s pretty, of course, but it’s a bit like a Scandinavian decorating magazine: it’s smooth, it’s cold, and after ten pages, you just give up. And the thriller? It appears at the end of the book, like a guest who’s missed his own birthday. As for the attempts at dramatic tension… ah, that insistent music that tries to make us believe that something is happening. Too bad it’s not.

It’s a shame we have to wait until two-thirds of the way through the story to get some action and twists: that climax to the plot that has progressed too little up to that point. Yes, the story moves a little too slowly and too confusingly. In fact, you have to wait a painful 1 hour 20 minutes for anything to happen. Before that, it’s almost an ordeal, as the film is so uninteresting. Then, after 1 hour 40 minutes, there’s finally a twist, except that the film lost us a long time ago.

Kidman does what she can with what she’s given. She wavers between determination and bewilderment, but her efforts are drowned out by a script that moves at a snail’s pace. Macfadyen, meanwhile, seems condemned to wander in the background, while Bernal plays a Dave as memorable as a sandwich without filling. Still, they have good charisma, but that doesn’t save anything.

All in all, Holland is a bit like a dish that smells good but doesn’t taste good. A thriller that doesn’t thrill, a satire that doesn’t bite. If it was intentional, it’s genius. If it wasn’t… then let’s move on and forget the whole thing!