‘Holland’ movie review: Nicole Kidman holds this uneven thriller together

‘Holland’ movie review: Swerving wildly between genres, and a bizarre plot, this Mimi Cave feature is saved from complete annihilation by the marvellous Ms. Kidman

When Holland opens with shots of windmills and tulips and all the cutesy tourist traps including wooden shoes and Dutch dancing, you might be forgiven for thinking this is a Stepford Wives set up. The fact that Nicole Kidman, who starred in the 2004 adaptation of the Ira Levin novel, is in the picture with Dutch cap, cements the belief.

Though it is the year 2000, for the small community in Holland, Michigan, the clock seems to have stopped at some point of time in a Vermeer painting. Nancy (Kidman) lives the perfect suburban life — teaching in the local school, cooking and cleaning for her optometrist husband, Fred (Matthew Macfadyen), and caring for their 13-year-old son, Harry (Jude Hill).

There are hints early on that Nancy is not a particularly reliable narrator. So is there something sinister in Holland or is it all in Nancy’s head? When Greg seems to be taking too many out of town trips for an optometrist, Nancy suspects an affair. When a search of the house yields nothing significant, she takes the help of a fellow teacher, Dave (Gael García Bernal), to search Greg’s office.

When that too does not reveal any deep, dark secret, Nancy and Dave decide to follow Greg on one of his out-of-town trips and the film goes completely off the rails. Suddenly there are mysterious deaths, cannibal dogs, and murderers who refuse to stay dead. The twist is arbitrarily squished in and defuses all the unease and disquiet that was so skillfully woven into the movie.

It is only thanks to Kidman that the film holds together. She wills us to believe in the preposterous happenings on screen, through sheer star power. We are willing to invest in Nancy’s story, and fear for her sanity and her life as the carefully constructed façade starts to crumble.

Setting the film in 2000, a time of pagers and those pencil-box size mobile phones with green screens and labourious texts, makes things appear even more askew. Beautifully shot (Nancy’s nightmares are creatively horrifying), Holland would have been better served with a tighter plot, instead of leaving some things unsaid and others too detailed.

For now we can watch Kidman delicately walk the line of black comedy in her aprons and sweaters with Bernal providing excellent support, marvel at the incredibly detailed model train set or laugh with Leslie Nielsen as Detective Sergeant Frank Drebin interrogating a mime.