Does Nicole Kidman ever miss? The Australian actor has been prolific in recent years, and her commitment to working with female directors is an admirable quality (over the last eight years, she has collaborated with at least 19 female filmmakers). Even when the film fails her, she never misses a beat- rising above the material she is given. Predictably, that is the case with her latest offering, Holland, which is director Mimi Cave’s follow-up to the thrilling Fresh. (Also read: Babygirl review: Nicole Kidman is a marvel in dark, sexy psychodrama of female desire)
The premise
Holland is a curious case of a film that is too self aware of its own roots, but does not know where to proceed when the plot decides to spiral. It starts off promisingly, with Nicole playing Nancy Vandergroot, a teacher at a school in Holland, Michigan. She is married to Fred Vandergroot (Matthew Macfadyen), who is an optometrist. They have a son named Harry (Jude Hill). Nancy suspects that the babysitter (Rachel Sennott, stupidly given one scene) has stolen an earring, and fires her. This sets her off in a hot air of suspicion, which grows as she begins to suspect her husband, who goes on sudden business trips in town. Does an optometrist have these many conferences?
Nancy teams up with Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), her colleague to further trace this suspicion, and from here on begins a nosey investigation that leads to frustratingly hollow results. As expected, Dave and Nancy come closer during this adventure, which will complicate matters furthermore for her. But the script by Andrew Sodroski is too keen on unpacking one follow-up to another, ignorantly side-stepping reason and logic at several points.
Dave faces racism only when it is conveniently circling around Nancy’s theatrics. Fred’s huge train set in the basement remains there only, without adding any context to Nancy’ frantic search. The setting, so detailed in its iconography, feels like an afterthought. The household could have very well been in Agra and not one secret would feel misplaced.
Final thoughts
The foolish investigation takes up most of the time, leaving no room to build the character dynamics as well as the tension. Macfadyen and Bernal are wasted in underwritten parts, and it is Kidman who is to given the task of rescuing this ordeal. The actor could sleepwalk through the role which is up to a familiar terrain with her work in The Stepford Wives. She is able to infuse a tragi-comic sense of curiosity in Nancy that the film so glaringly lacks.
Mimi Cave’s follow-up to Fresh is frustratingly inept and coiled up in its own twisted logic, leaving the viewer with nothing to chew upon. Up until the second half, the viewer has already imagined where this could lead and what it could mean, but the script leads nowhere at all. Holland feels like it needed a dose of the Coen Brother’s dark comedy and the eeriness of M. Night Shyamalan to accelerate things around. There’s an interesting film hidden somewhere in the loose ends, but Holland cannot seem to find it.
