Holland

Grade: C+

You can call Holland many things, and I will. It’s undercooked, melodramatic, doesn’t focus on the aspects we most want to know about, etc – but you can’t call it boring. There’s no shortage of intriguing promise it shows in the beginning, only for many of those hopes to be dashed. I am just barely not recommending it, but I almost hope you see it, perhaps to ask if you could make any more sense of it than I did.

These are the best opening credits I have seen in years. The cinematography and art direction are colorful and always interesting to watch. I eagerly settled in for what appeared to be a fusion of American Beauty and Pleasantville – a character study of a seemingly picture perfect suburban family (the kind you’d see in a dated sitcom) with some dark secrets rearing their heads. Nicole Kidman’s opening voice-over narration, in which she states that she’s happy with her life and finally feels safe, is ominous. Did she feel unsafe before? Why? We don’t find out. It keeps getting brought up and hinted at with no follow-through.

The poster and promotion photos are a bit deceiving and misleading. I thought it would be a historical, political period drama set overseas way back when. I was pleased to find that it was much closer to the kind of movie I enjoy. The Holland in the title actually refers to Holland, Michigan – and takes place in the early 2000s. There are Nokia phones with prehistoric text messaging, screensavers with the Microsoft logo, VHS tapes, and landline phones. There’s not much of a reason to have such a heavy presence of Dutch costumes and themes, other than as filler in fantasy/dream sequences that try so hard to be creepy. Characters in movies wake up from nightmares in the same way. They all sit straight up in bed and gasp.

Kidman plays Nancy Vandergroot. She is a high school home economics teacher, and her husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen from Succession) is a well-liked, popular optometrist. They have a young son named Harry (Jude Hill from A Haunting in Venice and Belfast). Nancy has been noticing that Fred has been going on a suspicious amount of business trips lately. Her being named Nancy may be symbolic, because it’s quite Nancy Drew-like how she plays detective in investigating for evidence of a potential affair. Any so-called smoking gun she finds is pretty flimsy. If you overthink hard enough, anything can become a possible “clue” that supports your confirmation bias.

The score is very prevalent with lots of strings. Kidman’s plucky performance may annoy people, and might be meant to. She loves the thrill of looking for clues, as does her friend and fellow teacher Dave (Gael García Bernal), who co-conspires with her in these hunting missions. Macfayden’s Fred is, from the viewer’s perspective, initially a wonderful husband/father who is respected in the community. It’s too bad the screenplay had other plans for him. The presence of Rachel Sennott sealed the deal when it came to whether or not I was going to see the film. Only someone like her could have had the size role she does and have her name in the opening credits. She is barely in it. She has one quick scene, and is never seen again.

I know exactly where I wish Holland would have gone, plot-wise, but instead, we are introduced to another twist. It only serves to muddy everything up and make me wonder why this character is doing what they are doing. The opening narration is repeated at the end, with different voices contributing. I think I understand the destination, but I question how necessary the journey was to arrive there. Holland presents interesting ideas and possible directions, only to drown in melodrama and a confusing, excessive through-line of Dutch imagery.

Grade: C+