Directed by Mimi Cave, who made her name with Fresh, Holland promised to be a psychological thriller with a tense atmosphere and a prestigious cast. In the lead role, Nicole Kidman plays a small-town Michigan housewife whose life is turned upside down when she begins to suspect that her husband is hiding more than just an affair. On paper, the film is reminiscent of suburban dramas like Welcome to Suburbicon, and promises a gradual slide from the mundane to the horrific. Unfortunately, despite some aesthetic qualities and solid acting, Holland struggles to convince.
Holland will be available on Prime Video from March 27, 2025.
Synopsis: Believing her husband to be unfaithful, a woman decides to do the same for herself. Until she realizes that her husband is in fact a serial killer.
The film follows a woman who is deeply bored by her bland routine. Convinced that her husband is cheating on her, she considers taking a few liberties of her own, seeking to fill the emotional void in her daily life. It's only gradually, as her doubts intensify, that the story slips into a darkerthriller.
It's only towards the end that she discovers that her husband - played by Matthew Macfadyen, chilling and magnetic as in Succession - is not an unfaithful man, but a serial killer. A belated revelation that could have provoked a real narrative shock, had it not already been spelled out in the film's official synopsis. This promotional indiscretion deprives the viewer of the element of surprise, weakening the impact of the well-staged final twist.
But even accepting this revelation, the film suffers from uneven pacing: a languid first half struggles to capture attention, then a brutal acceleration in the final half-hour reveals the full extent of the drama. This narrative imbalance, combined with a disjointed screenplay, detracts from the fluidity of the whole.
Visually, Mimi Cave deploys an elegant style: the photography is subdued, the pastel tones contrasting subtly with the underlying anguish. At times, the atmosphere is Lynchian, with heavy silences and latent tension.
But here again, the Holland, Michigan setting, rich in narrative potential, remains in the background. The city becomes a mere backdrop, where it could have become a character in its own right, reinforcing isolation, social pressure and concealment. This insufficient exploitation of the setting weakens the overall atmosphere.
While Nicole Kidman manages to bring real intensity to her role, oscillating between fragility and determination, her writing is too superficial. Her character remains frozen, with no real dramatic development, just like that of her husband, aptly played by Matthew Macfadyen, who confirms here the breadth of his range after his remarkable performance in Succession.
Alongside them, Gael García Bernal plays Nicole Kidman's lover, a warmer, brighter character who helps her investigate her husband's alleged infidelity in the hope of exposing him and strengthening her chances of gaining custody of their son. Brilliant in a role that is both gentle and endearing, the Mexican actor injects a little lightness and humanity into a story that often lacks it. His presence provides a welcome emotional counterpoint to the latent cynicism of the main couple.
Unfortunately, the other secondary characters are barely sketched in, making it difficult to become attached to them or understand their dynamics. This lack of development prevents the film from generating any real emotional tension.
Holland leaves the viewer wanting more. There's a real potential here, an atmosphere and committed actors, but everything seems to be held back by an incoherent script and an abrupt conclusion. Where we'd expected a gradual build-up to an intense climax, the story gets going too late, then comes to a screeching halt, without giving the characters time to fully resonate.
Those looking for a stylized psychological thriller, with a subdued tone and a touch of domestic unease, may find Mimi Cave's world to their liking. But for fans of solid suspense, masterful storytelling and complex characters, frustration is likely to be the order of the day.
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