arfdawg-1
Joined Mar 2005
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arfdawg-1's rating
The Plot
In New York in 1910, wealthy spinster Victoria Van Brett controls with an iron hand both the family fortune and the lives of her younger sister Caroline and half brother Rip. When Rip marries Anne Darrow, a nurse who saved his life, Victoria does everything in her power to ruin the marriage. Victoria restricts Anne's use of the family's Fifth Avenue mansion and only addresses her indirectly as "that woman."
I guess the was a hit on Broadway. The translation to silver screen is heavy-handed, clunky and downright boring. The two main actors, reprising their Broadway roles overact to the point that it's laughable.
Not really sure why this flick gets such high review numbers.
Not really sure why this flick gets such high review numbers.
Nicole Kidman is one of the few actors who can elevate even mediocre material-but Holland gives her no such chance. Directed by Mimi Cave and written by Andrew Sodroski, this film is a baffling misfire that manages to waste top-tier talent on a script so incoherent and lifeless it barely qualifies as a story.
Kidman plays a woman unraveling in an isolated mid-Western setting, but any intrigue the premise promises quickly vanishes under the weight of Sodroski's disjointed screenplay. Scenes feel stitched together without logic or progression. The plot goes nowhere, the dialogue is clunky and stilted, and the emotional stakes are virtually nonexistent. It's as if the film is trying to say something-but forgot what it was halfway through writing.
Sodroski's script is more frustrating than provocative. It confuses vagueness for mystery, and silence for depth. As a result, nothing sticks-not the characters, not the themes, not even the setting. It's not merely boring; it's aggressively unengaging.
Mimi Cave, who brought a distinct voice to Fresh, seems creatively boxed in here. Her direction lacks focus and confidence. The film occasionally leans on visual moodiness, but it never builds into anything meaningful. The tone is flat, the pacing sluggish, and the atmosphere feels more accidental than intentional.
Nicole Kidman does her best, but there's only so much one actor can do when the material gives her nothing to hold onto. Her talent is wasted in a film that doesn't understand-or care-how to use her.
Holland could have been a compelling psychological descent, but instead it's an empty, meandering experience weighed down by poor writing and uninspired direction. For a film with such high-profile names, the result is shockingly forgettable.
Kidman plays a woman unraveling in an isolated mid-Western setting, but any intrigue the premise promises quickly vanishes under the weight of Sodroski's disjointed screenplay. Scenes feel stitched together without logic or progression. The plot goes nowhere, the dialogue is clunky and stilted, and the emotional stakes are virtually nonexistent. It's as if the film is trying to say something-but forgot what it was halfway through writing.
Sodroski's script is more frustrating than provocative. It confuses vagueness for mystery, and silence for depth. As a result, nothing sticks-not the characters, not the themes, not even the setting. It's not merely boring; it's aggressively unengaging.
Mimi Cave, who brought a distinct voice to Fresh, seems creatively boxed in here. Her direction lacks focus and confidence. The film occasionally leans on visual moodiness, but it never builds into anything meaningful. The tone is flat, the pacing sluggish, and the atmosphere feels more accidental than intentional.
Nicole Kidman does her best, but there's only so much one actor can do when the material gives her nothing to hold onto. Her talent is wasted in a film that doesn't understand-or care-how to use her.
Holland could have been a compelling psychological descent, but instead it's an empty, meandering experience weighed down by poor writing and uninspired direction. For a film with such high-profile names, the result is shockingly forgettable.
Plot: Documentary following the story of teenager Jamie Campbell, who wants to be a drag queen. Allegedly growing up in an ex-mining village in County Durham, Jamie has already faced his fair share of difficulties in his mind after coming out as gay at 14.
However, with the majority of his family and friends being supportive, he has decided that he is ready to share his passion with the world. Like the world is interested.
He plans to embrace who he really is by attending his end of school prom in drag, but he doesn't get the reaction he'd hoped for from both his school and, heart-breakingly, his own father. Do you wonder why? I mean really.
So Jamie spends time with an established drag artist he he magically finds in podunk Durham County, and battles his demons, performing as his alter ego, Fifi La True, for the very first time in front of a large audience.
What a poor excuse for a documentary. None of it is believable. And Jamie is a very unlikeable character. The entire doc appears to be nothing more than a scripted movie with an agenda. Don't waste your time. There are better docs out there.
However, with the majority of his family and friends being supportive, he has decided that he is ready to share his passion with the world. Like the world is interested.
He plans to embrace who he really is by attending his end of school prom in drag, but he doesn't get the reaction he'd hoped for from both his school and, heart-breakingly, his own father. Do you wonder why? I mean really.
So Jamie spends time with an established drag artist he he magically finds in podunk Durham County, and battles his demons, performing as his alter ego, Fifi La True, for the very first time in front of a large audience.
What a poor excuse for a documentary. None of it is believable. And Jamie is a very unlikeable character. The entire doc appears to be nothing more than a scripted movie with an agenda. Don't waste your time. There are better docs out there.