Mimi Cave’s 'Holland' is a confused film, a film that fails to fit into a particular genre because it is too inept and befuddled to be a thriller mystery
Holland still
Film: Holland
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal, Matthew Macfadyen, Rachel Sennott, Jude Hill, Lennon Parham, Jacob Moran, Jeff Pope
Director: Mimi Cave
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 108 min.
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It’s not Holland the country but Holland, Michigan which is being referenced here. Nancy (Kidman) is a teacher whose life with her husband in Holland, Michigan, gets twisted when she and her colleague become suspicious of a secret.
Mimi Cave’s 'Holland' is a confused film, a film that fails to fit into a particular genre because it is too inept and befuddled to be a thriller mystery. When you hear the story it will sound like a thriller, but the severe lack of actual tension and the bemused treatment makes it a boring tasteless affair.
Set in 2000, the film has a fairly interesting plot but the way it plays out, leaves a lot to be desired. Nancy Vandergroot, a teacher at a school in Holland, Michigan, married to Fred Vandergroot (Matthew Macfadyen), an optometrist, and their son Harry (Jude Hill) live in an unusual city, Holland which has a strong Dutch influence. We see that in the cultural references that keep getting pulled out at every turn. Windmills, Dutch costumes and customs flit in and out of the backgrounds, and one could assume the references could be a comment on the nature of the human beast who tries to hide away his true self. But it’s all so pointless in a film that is too insipid and wholesome to be meaningful.
Pawel Pogorzelski’s camera constantly swoops across a miniature landscape of a massive model of a Holland railway train set. The reference here is about a secret life, one that Fred’s wife knows nothing about.
Nancy gets suspicious about Fred when he goes on yet another business trip. As an optometrist does he really need to go on so many conferences? Then she finds a crumpled-up ticket from Madison, Wisconsin, when he was supposed to be on the other side of Michigan. Suspecting that Fred is having an affair, Nancy decides to investigate with awkward help from a colleague from school, Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), who is halfway in love with Nancy. They eventually stumble on a truth so shocking it puts their life and love at risk.
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Nancy has just enough Midwestern nicety to be intriguing. She wants to be a perfect wife and mother, wants to keep her pristine reputation in the community, hold her family together, and yet have a fling with Dave. Kidman plays her too nice and wholesome to be entertaining or to fit in with the writer’s vision of her. The character should have been more campy, quirkier and even sexually obsessed to be truly memorable.
Working from a screenplay by Andrew Sodroski, Cave constructs salubrious visuals but they don’t amount to much because there’s very little that’s compelling in the treatment. Macfadyen and Bernal, are competent but their efforts can’t quite save a narrative that is constructed without much guile and is fundamentally confused about its purpose.
Sodroski’s story has a shocking twist that, is revealed in the latter half of the second act but once that’s done there’s nowhere to go. The attempt at studying suburban paranoia and domestic isolation becomes moot thereof. Composer Alex Somers (Nickel Boys) attempts to drum up tension feels false as the narrative plays flat and uninteresting. Holland plods along, weighed down by abandoned storylines. After the big reveal, it becomes a drag proceeding to lose its hold altogether in the third act. This film is a lost cause!
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