Holland is a new film that recently premiered on Prime Video and comes from 2022’s Fresh writer & director, Mimi Cave. The film stars Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal, Matthew Macfadyen, and Jude Hill. Teacher & homemaker Nancy Vandergroot (Kidman) has a picture-perfect life with her community pillar husband, Fred (Macfadyen), and son, Harry (Hill), in Holland, Michigan who tumbles into a twisted tale. Nancy and her friendly colleague, Dave Delgado (Bernal), become suspicious of a secret, only to discover nothing in their lives is what it seems.

The film was initially planned all the way back in 2013 with Naomi Watts & Bryan Cranston attached to star. Plans fell through a few years later, giving Prime Video the film rights in 2016. It’s ironic that Watts was the original star as I have always found similarities between her & Kidman. What’s even more ironic is Kidman, the same person who likes to tell you how important it is to go the movies in before the movie stars at an AMC theater, has been in so much streaming content lately. Needless to say, I wasn’t all that excited for it. After seeing it, I’m glad I wasn’t that excited.

It honestly feels like there is a nice shift for movies going back to the theater. There’s a clear indicator that if the film isn’t in awards season, more than likely the streaming movie is not going to be great. I think I had that sort of mindset going into this. I was aware of the bad reviews going in, and I can’t say that I was all that surprised. Mimi Cave’s career skyrocketed after her 2022 film, Fresh, released on Hulu. That was actually a good movie, so I think there was hope that this one would also be good. Cave shows promise at building tension. Unfortunately, the script does her no favors.

Between Kidman, Bernal, and Macfadyen, you can tell where they are doing the best with what they are giving. Kidman & Bernal don’t have the best chemistry, making their little affair less believable, but they are still trying their best with what the script gives them. Macfadyen shines though, showing how promising of an actor he is in. Even if a movie might not be great, I can still easily see Macfadyen seeing plenty of success in films going forward.

What makes the script here so rough is how it works with the reveal. I am not kidding when I say it takes 2/3’s to get to the main reveal. Don’t get me wrong, the reveal is wild and Cave does a great job directing it. Once it gets to its reveal, it’s too little too late though. The film only has about 30 minutes to wrap it up, and it is rushed. The conclusion has a lot of tension, but it also leaves way too much to interpretation, which feels unfair when the film spent so much time to developing the characters and their story.

While I don’t mind a good slow burn, this slow burn adds nothing of value. I was honestly gaslit the whole time we were going to get a Welcome to Marwen where the characters are really just the dolls of a miniature city come to life. I guess you could see that’s also 2019’s Serenity. Either way, those are terrible movies, but this one still makes the reveal feel more complex like those movies.

The film also fails thematically. It wants to show the dangers of a dangerous marriage where the man wants to be in control of the wife. It’s been done many times before. The problem here is that when you know what the reveal is and Kidman trying to get with Bernal’s character, it completely misses the point. Hill, who plays as the son, also clearly hates his mother and loves his mother. Once Hill’s character understand what’s going on, he has a change of heart and flips his feelings, but the film never captures these characters in the fallout of their decisions.

I think if the twist was revealed in the beginning of the second act, the middle portion could have leaned more into the film’s themes as it would grapple with the character’s decisions. Then, the finale could have a resolution that gives the characters meaningful arcs and follow through on its themes. This could have been a trippy, fever dream full of tension, but instead lacks in proper story & character development.

Overall, while Holland has a few good components going for it, it fails to capitalize on its premise that takes too long to get to. If you are a fan of the cast like I am, it’s not the worst thing you’ll see. Considering it’s out on streaming, don’t expect anything worth your time.

VERDICT: 2/5 (Bad)