A small-town woman named Nancy Vandergroot (played by Nicole Kidman) seems to be living the perfect life. She’s got a husband in Fred (Matthew Macfadyen), a son in Harry (Jude Hill), a great job as a high school Life Ed teacher and lives in a nice house in a nice area of the nice, quiet town of Holland, Michigan. Naturally inquisitive, Nancy starts to realize things aren’t as they seem and begins to investigate. She finds Polaroid film in an old hidden tool box and a wadded up parking ticket (among other things) and starts to suspect her husband is cheating on her. She confides in a colleague at school, David Delgado (Gael Garcia Bernal), and the two set out to gather evidence and, eventually, catch him in the act. Shockingly, things might even be more sinister than she imagined.
To nobody’s surprise, Kidman is great and compelling as the film’s lead, Hill provides a near-perfect delivery as the confused teenager and Bernal is believable as the co-teacher-turned-love interest. Macfadyen is solid but, unfortunately, lacks a level of impact. As the movie’s antagonist, it’s odd that he doesn’t create even a shred of fear — or even uneasiness — whenever he’s on the screen. Macfayden is a great actor, Royal Academy trained, but he’s absolutely the weakest link here.
Director Mimi Cave turns in the best work of her young career. Everything from musical cues to flashlights smash cut into headlights to incredibly creepy visuals during dream sequences, the overall feel of HOLLAND is next level. This is a movie produced for a streaming platform but has that theatrical release sheen that ups the perceived quality even more, all thanks to Cave.
I would’ve loved to have seen this as a September release. It’s not a horror movie but it would have had a home among whatever the Halloween slate is going to be later this year. But, being made for Amazon Prime, here we are.
In the end, I have a very strong feeling that HOLLAND is much more than it seems. That maybe what we’re watching isn’t exactly linear. Could this entire story be Nancy’s fantasy while living in a mental institution? Could Dave have orchestrated the whole thing? Whatever the case, even at face value, don’t dance around HOLLAND. It’s a winner.
JKG SCORE: 7.0*
* I reserve the right to change my score if I unlock some metaphorical storyline I haven’t figured out yet.
Untitled Film Project 