Holland

Holland, is the definition of a surreal, psychedelic ride through mystery and bizarreness. Which I was expecting something just normal. I didn't watch the trailers or anything for this, so I had no idea what I was in for.

It's definitely not one of Nicole Kidmans best, but she does carry it so well for you to stay invested, along with all the other cast as well. The acting is great. The movie starts out pretty slow, a couple of things drag, you don't know what's going on, at some points you're trying to figure out what genre the movie is and then things just really start to unravel and get better. The cracks start to form. Things begin to escalate and come together. The unusual soundtrack, along with its strange cinematography, makes you feel like you're on this "high on life" and trip on acid.

Basically, the movie is a slow burn. It didn't leave me disappointed nor satisfied. It just will leave you in a state of "Okay...what did I just watch??" It's just one of those movies. Think Midsommar blended in with Scream. That's Holland. Not amazing, not bad, but weirdly interesting!

Rating - 5.6: Overall, a lackluster mystery thriller that Nicole Kidman cannot save because the movie does a bad job trying to subvert your expectations because it tries to lead you down a bad path when searching for the mystery, but the foreshadowing in the beginning and promotional material for this movie already give the conflict away; the movie genuinely feels like 20-30 minutes worth of scenes were cut because there was a lack of context throughout and the movie just feels unfinished towards the end.

Direction - Pretty Bad: The direction on a macroscale is pretty good, as it creates this mystery set in a society stuck in the past, like Holland, Michigan; the direction on a microscale is pretty good, mainly because the main cast is filled with experienced actors, especially Nicole Kidman; the storytelling holds the movie back because it intentionally leads you down the wrong path in the mystery they are trying to solve, and once the actual conflict is revealed, it does not provide any context or explanation for why it happens; they artificially create tension to make this movie a thriller, but not in a good way because it feels obviously forced

Story - Bad to Pretty Bad: The concept as a whole is pretty good as it presents a conflict across a perfect, stuck-in-time utopia like Holland, Michigan; but that conflict is pretty poor as it intentionally leads the audience down the wrong path to subvert its expectations; the plot structure is a big issue for this movie because the movie basically leads you down an adventure to figure out a mystery, but then when you find out what the actual mystery is, it basically just ends the movie without giving any context or closure; it genuinely feels like 20-30 minutes of this movie was cut because the movie feels unfinished, evidenced by Rachel Sennott's one scene and the ending; the character writing is what you would expect for a movie like this because it follows your vanilla housewife in a traditional family investigating her mysterious husband

Screenplay - Bad to Pretty Bad: The dialogue is decent and gives the actors something to work with; the humor is decent and helps lighten the mood; the symbolism is not really that good because the movie never really builds on anything or shares why certain plot elements are important; the foreshadowing is a big problem for this movie because the movie foreshadows what the actual conflict for this movie is overtly and very early in the movie, but then the movie foreshadows and goes down a different path throughout the movie; however, because you remember what the foreshadowing was early in the movie, plus the promotional material makes the conflict pretty obvious, it is not shocking at all when the real conflict is revealed, so you just feel like you wasted 40 minutes to get to this point

Acting - Pretty Good: Nicole Kidman - Good (Nicole Kidman can never give a bad performance; it shows here because she really embodies the character and makes the most of what she is given; she has good chemistry with Macfayden and Bernal), Matthew Macfadyen - Pretty Good (Basically plays Tom Wambsgans, but more mysteriously; he has good chemistry with Kidman), Gael García Bernal - Pretty Good (He has pretty good charisma and has good chemistry with Nicole Kidman), Rest of the cast - Decent (A bunch of minor supporting characters do a decent job supporting the main cast)

Score - Pretty Good: Helps create mystery and tension

Cinematography - Pretty Good: Feels polished

Editing - Decent: Feels polished; the cut for this movie feels a little unfinished

Sound - Decent: Helps create tension and suspense

Production Design - Pretty Good: Helps create Holland, Michigan, this stuck-in-time utopian city

Costumes - Pretty Good: Helps bring Holland, Michigan to life

Pacing - Pacing is fine up until the actual conflict is revealed; then the movie just feels very mismanaged and rushed to get to the finishing line; I genuinely think that 20-30 minutes of this movie was cut, and that was needed to help provide needed context

Climax - The climax is very lackluster, with the ending feeling unfinished

Tone - Tone is what one would expect from a mystery thriller;

Final Notes - Saw the second premiere at SXSW.

I read the original Black List script for this film years ago. It was cool, and the concept was a unique one for sure. But the director just didn't pull it off this time. No offense to Mimi Cave, I'm sure this was just the wrong material for her, but I've *heard* that, even though she's not credited as a writer, she got in there and messed around the with the very script that made this potentially special. Of course it coulda been the producers meddling in places they shouldn't have...who knows, I wasn't there. But it definitely, like so many other films, at least brings up the point that directors should sometimes just let themselves be directors. You don't HAVE to be a writer/director, but I'm sure the problem is that it's an ego thing, and that directors proclaim that they can write, just because they're creative in other ways... But I hope more directors will follow Scorcese, Spielberg, etc etc and stick to what they're good at and let the writers handle the writing/story/characters.

Reading the reviews I wasn't expecting much but Holland was a worthwhile watch for the acting. All three leads did a great job. I was particularly impressed with Matthew Macfadyen who got the accent perfect and was as typically cheery as you'd expect his character to be. As a Michigander I appreciated the local references though the commuter train was comically inaccurate. All the main characters are flawed which makes it an interesting watch from a human nature perspective.

It does end rather upbruptly and the viewer has to make some large assumptions about what happens next.

But the plot is intriguing and it covers ground rarely seen in the world of movie plots, so I'd say it's worth a look.

I was drawn to Holland because I liked Mimi Cave's work on Fresh quite a lot, so I figured, why not give this one a shot? Right from the start, though, I felt like I was watching a beautiful facade that slowly began to crumble. The movie sets up this idyllic suburban world that promises dark secrets lurking underneath, but it doesn't really deliver on that promise.

The screenplay is all over the place, disjointed, and full of abrupt plot turns that feel unearned. One minute you're settling into the slow burn of suburban perfection, and the next, bam, a twist that never had time to build up any real suspense. The tonal shifts between dark humor and suspense are jarring, and frankly, neither element is strong enough on its own to carry the movie. It's clear that the characters were meant to mirror the film's theme of artifice and hidden darkness, but aside from Nicole Kidman's Nancy, they're pretty underwritten. Kidman tries her best to hold everything together, and she does give a standout performance, yet her character doesn't have enough depth or substance to fully shine in a script that never really finds its footing.

There are some interesting ideas at play, like the notion of suburban perfection hiding a sinister underside. The use of the tulip imagery and all the Dutch-themed decor is visually stunning and adds to the unsettling beauty of the film. However, all that potential is let down by too many narrative gaps and twists that feel contrived. The theme of artifice, while promising, is never deeply explored, and it remains a surface-level idea. The pacing is another issue. The movie drags in some parts and then rushes through key moments in others, so it never really builds any proper tension.

Overall, its visual style and production design are definitely its strongest points, which capture an unsettling, almost beautiful atmosphere. But unfortunately, that style is bogged down by a poor script and uneven storytelling. Holland is a film with some bright flashes that, sadly, never come together as a cohesive whole.