Film Review: HOLLAND (2025): Nicole Kidman is Solid in a Thriller That Ultimately Falls Apart at the Seams

Holland Review

Holland (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Mimi Cave, written by Andrew Sodroski and starring Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal, Matthew Macfadyen, Jude Hill, Jeff Pope, Isaac Krasner, Lennon Parham, Rachel Sennott, Chris Witaske, River Brooks, Jens Frederiksen, Bill Russell, Jacob Moran, Jonathan Pawlowski, Sue Rock and Heather Marie Olsen.  

In filmmaker Mimi Cave’s Holland, Nicole Kidman plays a woman named Nancy Vandergroot who lives in Holland, Michigan with her family. Kidman nails the role, but the script doesn’t do her performance justice. Cave’s film centers on secrets surrounding Nancy’s eye doctor husband, Fred (Matthew Macfadyen). Nancy tells a key character in the film, Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), that Fred saved her from a troubled life which is essentially why she married him. Holland gets the dynamic between these three central characters all wrong and, though the film maintains interest and is genuinely suspenseful, the implausible character development ultimately undermines the integrity of the film’s premise.

Like the tagline of 1999’s American Beauty said about its seemingly ordinary characters, “Look closer.” In Holland, the viewer is asked to do the same as this new picture is, interestingly enough, set around the time American Beauty was released. Had the new picture not made Fred so mysteriously psychopathic, Cave’s film could have been on to something. Instead, it plays more like a horror movie at the end as people sneak around much of the movie looking for information and the husband and wife finally confront each other at the end with devastating results all around. This film employs Jude Hill as Nancy and Fred’s son, Harry, but, unfortunately, the kid has no real depth beyond the basic stereotypes that surround spoiled kids in America then and now.

Holland is at its best when Kidman’s character deals directly with those who do things she disapproves of. Case in point, Rachel Sennott’s babysitter character, Candy, who admits she’s stolen bacon even though Nancy suspects her of taking a precious earring of hers. Every character Nancy deals with seems to be a pain in her neck, even Dave who wanders around aimlessly admiring Nancy. When Dave and Nancy embrace each other in a moment of flirtatious connection, it feels all wrong. It’s almost like Kidman plays Nancy as such a smart character that we don’t believe she’d do the stupid things she does in this film.

Dave sneaks around trying to see what Fred is up to and then Nancy sneaks into Fred’s office to see what he is up to since his business trips don’t seem to be adding up in relation to what Fred is telling Nancy about them. There’s way too much sneaking around to obtain information and not enough confrontation between Nancy and Fred. Let’s face it, if Nancy confronted Fred and told him to get lost, the movie would be 20 minutes long!

In one unbelievable scenario, one of Fred’s young patients gets a contact lens stuck in his eye which allows Nancy to do something she otherwise would have been unable to do. Is all of this entertaining? In a way, yes, It’s not boring, but it’s annoying and frustrating to watch certain plot developments, especially regarding the relationship between Dave and Nancy which is hardly believable and falls flat on the screen.

Kidman sinks her teeth into the role and looks much younger than the actress is in real life. This is her second good performance in a less than stellar film, following the recently released, over-praised Babygirl. Kidman is what’s right about Holland and Macfadyen oozes a certain amount of creepiness through his performance that makes the viewer compelled to watch the picture all the way through. While García Bernal seems miscast, the actor tries his best with the material at hand to make us invested in his one-note character.

I mentioned American Beauty and that was an example of a successful film on the topic this movie presents. Of course, Holland wants to go places even darker than American Beauty went, but with a slightly lighter touch. That makes for an unsuccessful film. This movie would have had to turn up the seriousness factor a lot more to be successful. I never truly felt that Nancy was in real danger and a better film would have made sure it did make us feel she could fall victim to the husband to keep the audience in total suspense throughout.

Holland is an attempt at something daring and I admire it for that. What happens in every day America behind closed doors is a fascinating topic and one worthy of a movie with more meat on its bones than Holland ultimately has. In more simplistic terms, Holland works as a basic suspense picture, but should have been so much more given the talent involved.

Rating: 6.5/10

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