I Just Watched Nicole Kidman's New Prime Video Thriller—and I Have *Thoughts* on Its Big Twist

Big Little Lies, The Perfect Couple, The Undoing—a Nicole Kidman thrama (thriller/drama) in which she suspects her husband is up to no good is my favorite genre. So when I saw the trailer for Holland, her new Prime Video release that dropped on the streamer last month, I immediately added it to my watch list. Starring Kidman alongside Succession's Matthew Macfadyen and Y Tu Mamá También's Gael García Bernal, the movie promises a creepy mystery with lots of twists and turns. And, though there technically were, I found myself pretty underwhelmed by the plot in the end.

No spoilers, but the *big reveal* really came out of nowhere—and, worse yet, hardly lived up to its potential. Let's just say I expected a lot more from the film. Bummer though that was, I'd say it's worth the watch for the performances alone; even if the story is meh, you can count on this star-studded trio to pull their weight on screen.

The film is set in Holland, Michigan—the real-life Midwest town that celebrates its Dutch roots with a smattering of windmills and tulips—where Nancy Vandergroot (Kidman) leads an idyllic life as a teacher and homemaker. Her husband, Fred (Macfadyen), is the town's optometrist, a pillar of the church and community and an all-around innocuous guy. It appears his only hobby is working on the miniature town he's built in the garage (something that will always raise red flags for me since watching Beetlejuice as a child). Together they have a 13-year-old son, Harry, who is miffed at his mother for dismissing his babysitter (played by a seriously underutilized Rachel Sennott) over a misunderstanding.

The beginning of the movie reminded me of yet another Kidman classic: The Stepford Wives. Perfect family in a perfect town, with something seemingly bubbling under the surface. Alas, Nancy starts sniffing around her husband's stuff and suspicions arise from a box of unused Polaroid film—suspicions that she shares with her handsome friend and co-worker at the school, Dave (García Bernal). It is strange at first that Nancy seems almost gleeful at the prospect of her husband having an affair, but then one realizes that she is so incredibly bored in her "perfect" life that she's desperate for something salacious to happen.