After having its world premiere at the recent 2025 South by Southwest Film Festival, the Holland reviews for Amazon MGM Studios‘ newest thriller drama have been revealed. The Nicole Kidman-led movie is receiving mixed reviews from critics, with some calling it as “overstuffed” and “disappointing.” However, most of the early reactions praised its main cast, particularly Kidman’s leading performance.
“In this wildly unpredictable thriller, Nicole Kidman is the meticulous Nancy Vandergroot, a teacher and homemaker whose picture-perfect life with her community pillar husband and son in tulip-filled Holland, Michigan, tumbles into a twisted tale,” reads the official synopsis. “Nancy and her friendly colleague become suspicious of a secret, only to discover nothing in their lives is what it seems.”
What are the Holland reviews saying about the Nicole Kidman movie?
According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Lovia Gyarkye, the film features “striking advancements in the director’s style and committed performances” from the main cast. However, these qualities “can’t quite save a narrative fundamentally confused about its purpose.”
Per Glenn Garner of Deadline, Kidman’s “witty and manic performance” in the film is serving as a perfect reminder to fans “why they fell in love with her 30 years ago.” In addition, he also praised Bernal for his “charming and intense performance as a man conflicted by his own dark past, as well as his feelings for Nancy and the trouble that surrounds her.”
For Variety, Peter Debruge expressed his disappointment over the film failing to “deliver on its premise,” and wasting Kidman’s performance. “It’s a shame, then, that Holland doesn’t go farther in either the freak-out or high-camp directions. Just one or two truly outrageous moments can make the difference between forgettable and brain-brandingly original, and the film takes the most unexpected turn of all: Once the big family secret’s out in the open, it winds up feeling perfectly ordinary.”
Meanwhile, Chase Hutchinson of TheWrap calls the film “overstuffed and unwieldy.” Despite this, “seeing Kidman work her magic at every turn will never not be a joy to see,” as her performance “ensures every tonal shift lands as it goes from playfully comedic to delightfully dark and back again.”
Holland is directed by Mimi Cave from a screenplay written by Andrew Sodroski. The cast also includes Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) as Fred Vandergroot, Jude Hill (Belfast) as Harry Vandegroot, and Gael García Bernal (Babel) as Dave Delgado. Additional cast includes Rachel Sennott, Lennon Parham, Isaac Krasner, Jeff Pope, and Jacob Moran. The film is produced by Kate Churchill, Peter Dealbert, Nicole Kidman, and Per Saari.
The film will be available for streaming on March 27, 2025, exclusively on Prime Video.
