Holland
Director Mimi Cave's sophomore effort isn't as fresh as her debut, but she's not slumping.
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As a big fan of Mimi Cave’s 2022 feature directorial debut “Fresh” (my review here) I was certainly excited for her sophomore effort “Holland” (now streaming on Prime Video).
It’s the early aughts and Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman) is a Holland, Mich. home economics teacher who’s married to optometrist Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) and mother of Harry (Jude Hill, “Belfast”). Nancy generally loves her life in Holland. She and Fred are pillars of the community and they have a nice home, but there’s a stagnancy to her existence.
Excitement comes in the form of Nancy’s colleague shop teacher Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal). They form a tentative friendship at first, but their feelings deepen in time. Dave has hesitations about breaking up a marriage – especially as a Hispanic man in a largely white town. Nancy assuages his anxiety by telling him of her suspicions concerning Fred’s fidelity. They decide to investigate in the hope that she can make a clean break of things.
As directed by Cave and scripted by Andrew Sodroski, “Holland” feels like Coen brothers-lite. That’s not an insult per se and it’s certainly better than other entries to this burgeoning subgenre (the George Clooney-directed “Suburbicon” springs to mind … and that was actually co-written by the Coens). It’s both embracing and skewering Midwestern sensibilities much like the Coen’s “Fargo,” but not as successfully.
The film’s structure isn’t necessarily my favorite and it grows repetitive in time. Nancy and Dave spy on Fred and almost get caught, but don’t … wash, rinse, repeat. Some strange decisions are also made: talented young actress Rachel Sennott turns up for a scene at the beginning of the picture and then quickly disappears. Her bit could’ve been trimmed and it would’ve had zero impact on the narrative at hand. I really like Sennott, but I could’ve used either less or more of her.
Where “Holland” really cooks is in the performances of its primaries. Kidman excels at playing conflicted, complicated and compromised characters and Nancy is yet another one. Macfadyen does fun work playing the two sides to Fred. Bernal brings a humanity to Dave – an “other” in Holland who’s arguably the town and the movie’s moral center.
The third act has a doozy of a twist that to a certain extent is reminiscent of Cave’s “Fresh” – whether this lands or not will likely affect the viewer’s overall enjoyment – it worked for me. Speaking of burgeoning subgenres, “Holland” is the second movie in three months after “Babygirl” wherein Kidman’s character masturbates. Do with all of this what you will.