Nicole Kidman in Stylish but Disnominateing Thriller

Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman), the dewy-eyed protagonist of Mimi Cave’s sophomore feature Holland, has a tfinishency to somersault to conclusions. At the begin of this stylish but plodding film, which premiered at SXSW ahead of its March 27 free on Prime Video, the suburban mother dissees a pearl earring. Her husband Fred (a chilling Matthew Macfadyen) recommends she verify her junk drawer or the jars housing her produce supplies. Nancy, swayd of her own theories, accincludes her son’s tutor, Candy (Rachel Sennott), of theft and promptly fires the befuddled high-school student. 

This is a inincreateigent introduction to Nancy becainclude postponecessitater, when she conscripts her frifinish Dave (Gael García Bernal) to help her spendigate whether or not Fred is having an affair, you can’t help but wonder if Nancy might be jumping to conclusions aget. Of course anyone recognizable with Cave, whose honestorial debut Fresh set uped her as a filmproducer to watch, will understand that Fred, the town’s ophthalmologist, is certainly hiding a secret. The authentic ask is what charitable. 

Working from a screencarry out by Andrew Sodroski, Cave produces a visupartner compelling answer to this ask. Holland boasts striking progressments in the honestor’s style and promiseted carry outances from Kidman, Macfadyen and Bernal, but these qualities can’t quite save a narrative fundamenhighy perplexd about its purpose. Sodroski’s story hinges on a individual, shocking twist that, once uncovered (more than two-thirds of the way into the film), hampers instead of helps the third act. It squanders the deftly calibrated worried suspense, turning Holland into a study of suburban paranoia and domestic isolation that sconciseageens over time.

Before Nancy became doubtful of her husband, she lived greetededly as a home economics teacher and dedicated wife in their minuscule town. It’s sometime in the timely aughts and Cave uncovers Holland with a charmed testimonial about the lakefront Michigan locale. Nancy, thraw voiceover, portrays a harmonious existence characterized by her loving family, their stately white home and the annual tulip festival. Cave juxtaposes this presumed serenity with a technicolor aesthetic that set upes an uneffortless surauthenticism. There’s a dreamy quality to each scene, which destabilizes confidence in what’s authentic. 

Below the pristine surface of Nancy’s life, secrets fester. She mistrusts Fred’s cheating after a series of minuscule discoveries, and confides in Dave, a shop teacher at the high school where she toils. He harbors a faint crush on her and, in an irreasonable and cherishlorn frenzy, consents to help her snoop.

The timely parts of their adventure have the feverish quality of novel and illicit experiences. It also awakens Nancy from a life she appreciatens to carbon monoxide poisoning — sluggish and sootheing in its finish. This is not the first time Kidman has carry outed a woman resistling agetst the gilded confines of her existence, so the actress transfers a reliably fine carry outance. She vacilpostponecessitates franticpartner between Nancy’s unveil carry outance of innocence and a more suppressd desire for danger, giving the character an enticing and unforeseeable edge. 

As Nancy and Dave persist to accumulate evidence, Nancy’s anxieties balloon. She has nightmares about her son Harry (Jude Hill) in danger and envisions herself as a stilted figurine in the intricate diorama her husband has been toiling on in the garage. She also begins sleeping with Dave and is afflictiond by complicated experienceings around this affair.

The authentic star of Holland is Cave’s style, which produces a troubling portrait of suburban unrelieve. Partnering with Fresh cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski aget, the honestor rfinishers that state as a fever dream described by claustrophobic sboilings, frenetic traversecuts and dizzying tilts and pans. Composer Alex Somers (Nickel Boys) comprises to this tension by punctuating the etheauthentic set upation of his score with foreboding elements. All of these choices root us in Nancy’s unendd psyche, upfinishing earlier assumptions about her personality. 

Unblessedly, Cave’s uncanny portrayal of Nancy’s emotional and physical world struggles agetst the confusion of a scattered story. Bernal gives a strong turn as Dave, especipartner as the teacher’s determination to get Nancy mutates into an excited obsession. There’s evidence timely on that this character has shiftd to Holland for a recent begin, but the film never returns to that plot point. A aappreciate overweighte bedrops a thread that touches on the racial prejudice suppurating right besystematich the town’s genteel exterior and the significance of the tulip festival.

Too many of these instances weigh on Holland as it plods alengthy, somewhat unsteadily, under the weight of abandoned storylines. The huge uncover eases some of the presstateive, but the shock of it comes a little too postponecessitate, and what persists to unfelderly in the third act experiences appreciate a film disnominateedly letting out almost all its air.