”Holland” is a slowburn psychological thriller, starring Nicole Kidman, now streaming on Prime Video.
Photo Credit — IMDB
Holland, Michigan, Brooklyn Pennsylvania, Ding Dong Texas, Chicken Alaska, Rough and Ready California, Toad Suck Arkansas, Santa Claus Indiana, or lastly Buttzville, New Jersey to name a few. There are some really funny and silly sounding town names around the country. Oh wait, how on earth can we forget to mention the zany Intercourse, Pennsylvania?
Inside the quaint, tulip-filled town of Holland, Michigan, everything seems to be safe, traditional, and quiet. But always remember the old saying, never judge a book by its cover. In Holland, Michigan, nothing is as it seems looking in from the outside, but the same could be said for just about anywhere if you really try to find the cracks.
Superstar and, by some standards, a veteran actress Nicole Kidman (“Moulin Rouge,” “Being the Ricardos”) now 57-years-old plays Nancy Vandergroot, a mousy teacher and homemaker to her run-of-the-mill, paint by numbers, respected dentist husband Fred, played by Matthew Macfadyen. A respected family and pillar of the local community, with a last name like Vandergroot — you best keep your secrets in a vault somewhere dark and hidden.
Teaming up with her co-worker and seemingly only friend Dave Delgado, played by Gael García Bernal, Nancy discovers some personal unravellings that need her attention, and fast!
I have plenty of things in my life that could use some attention too, now that I think about it. How about I start with a full-time housekeeper? I know it is the month of Easter, but I just can’t take all these dust bunnies jumping around my house.
Sadly, everything in the town of Holland seems quite small to me. There is a lot to be said for small town America though, just not here in particular. Newly streaming on Prime, this new Nicole Kidman vehicle is worth a watch on a slow night in, but to be frank, she is better than this role and movie as a whole.
Like Taylor Swift, Kidman needs to go away and disappear for a hot minute. With 102 acting credits now under her belt, I recently tried getting into her new limited series opposite Liev Schreiber, “The Perfect Couple,” and this also felt very unoriginal and done a million times before. Yet another story about a wealthy, waspy New England family with too much time and money on their hands.
By the third act of “Holland,” right as you catch yourself about mid-yawn, the story starts to unspool like an itchy ball of yarn. Over-the-top and desperate in the end — and no I am not describing myself on some random Friday night last call happy hour as some bargain basement haunt.
The more revered “Holland” is meant to be known in the Netherlands, not in sleepy Michigan. Speaking of tired, let’s put this film and ourselves in bed for a nice little upcoming weekend nappy poo.
“Holland,” starring: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Macfadyen, Gael García Bernal
Christopher’s “Meow” Score: “5” paws out of 10.
