Holland

I was very excited to see this movie as I am a fan of Nicole Kidman and Garcia and thought the premise sounded very interesting.

The first and second act is rather slow to build up for a rather strange and bizarre third act that unfortunately fails to deliver on its shock twist.

The sad part is this film easily could've been a classic on the level of a Cohen Brothers or David Lynch, but instead it ends with some silly premises that are so far-fetched and a bloody ending that has so many plot holes, you scratch your head almost laughing.

Kudos to Nicole Kidman for taking a chance on this film as always she's trying something different and unique and carries the film with Garcia whose role is rather 2 dimensional but this film had no chance even with a great Director as this horrible script ends up being more like a b movie.

5 stars for actors/ director.

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.

I know most people didn't like this movie, I saw the ratings, read the reviews. But something about Holland stuck with me. It's not perfect. The pacing is off, the story doesn't always make sense, and it acts like it has something profound to say... but never quite says it.

And yet, maybe that's the point.

This isn't really a thriller, despite what it says on the tin. It's more like a slow, quiet metaphor for how a lot of us live now, especially women. We share space, time, and even intimacy with people we don't really know. We pretend things are fine because it's easier than asking the scary questions. We sense danger but doubt ourselves. We stay.

Nicole Kidman's performance is subtle. Too subtle, maybe. But there's something in her stillness that made me feel uncomfortable in a good way. Like someone trying very hard not to fall apart in front of anyone else. And maybe that's what the movie is really about.

I don't expect most people to agree with this review. That's okay. Not everything needs to be loud to be true.

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.