Nicole Kidman is taking viewers to Michigan this weekend in her new Amazon movie Holland, which began streaming today.
Directed by Mimi Cave, with a screenplay by Andrew Sodorski, Holland takes place in the early 2000s in a small, idyllic southwest Michigan town, Holland, which is known for its Dutch heritage and annual Tulip Festival. But what seems like a safe, quiet life in this town is upended when a woman becomes convinced her husband is hiding something from her.
Also starring Gael García Bernal, Matthew Macfadyen, and Jude Hill, Holland is a tense mystery thriller told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator. You don’t know who you can trust. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the movie can be confusing at times—especially when it comes to that ambiguous ending. Don’t worry, Decider is here to help. Read on for an analysis of the Holland movie plot summary and the Holland movie ending explained, including what happened to Dave at the end of Holland.
The movie opens with a voiceover from our protagonist, Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman) explaining that she loves her life in Holland, Michigan, which is a small, idyllic town in Michigan known for its Dutch heritage and annual tulip festival. “Before I came here, I was afraid, and I was confused, and I just couldn’t trust anyone, even myself,” Nancy says. “And then I found Fred.”
We learn that Nancy is a paranoid person after she can’t find one of her earrings, and fires her babysitter (Rachel Senott) for stealing, despite lack of evidence. This upsets Nancy’s young son, Harry (Jude Hill). Harry’s father and Nancy’s husband, Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) comforts him, and advises him to apologize to keep the peace. Fred appears to be a level-headed optometrist whose favorite hobby is creating a perfect replica-model of Holland. But he also goes on a suspicious number of out-of-town weekend trips. He claims they are conferences for optometrists, but how many conferences can one optometrist go to?
Nancy, a school teacher, confesses to her friend and fellow teacher Dave (Gael García Bernal) that she believes her husband is having an affair. While snooping in Dave’s stuff, she found a box of Polaroid film, and a parking ticket from Madison—not a town he’s ever supposed to have been to. Dave seems skeptical, but supports Nancy, likely because he’s clearly in love with her. He reluctantly agrees to help Nancy break into Fred’s optometrist office to search for more clues.
After a scary but ultimately harmless encounter with a cop, Dave tries to back out. He tells Nancy he’s “had his adventures with the law.” But she ropes him back in. She tells her husband she’s going out of town, and sneaks into his office at night. Inside, she finds a stash of credit cards and an album of Polaroid photos. One of the photos is of a woman by a sign declaring her the “Bologna Queen.”
High on the adrenaline of their successful break-in, Nancy and Dave hook up. They are interrupted by a racist, angry parent who eggs Dave’s house, in retaliation for him reporting possible child abuse to child services. Dave responds violently, fighting back with a bat. Dave tells Nancy he can’t be with her unless she leaves Fred. Nancy says she can’t do that to her son, Harry. Dave accuses Nancy of picking the safe, comfortable option out of fear.
Fred learns that Nancy lied about going out of town, and confronts his wife. He basically tells her that he won’t ask too many questions if she doesn’t, and that she can’t keep her safe, quiet life, as long as she keeps the peace, like he does. For a while, Nancy agrees. But she’s not satisfied. She fantasizes about Dave. She goes to Dave and tells him she’s ready to leave Fred and be with him for real.
Dave worries that Nancy could lose custody of Harry. They decide to gather concrete evidence that Fred is cheating, to use in a court custody battle. The next time Fred has an out-of-town “optometrist conference,” Dave and Nancy follow him. In Fred’s hotel, Nancy finds a bag of recently purchased handcuffs, men’s underwear, and dog treats. But Dave doesn’t think it’s enough proof. So while Nancy goes home to Harry, Dave once again tails Fred—this time to a remote house in the woods.
Dave breaks into the house, which is full of small dogs. He flips on his camcorder, ready to catch Fred in a compromising position. And he does! Just… not in the way he expected. Fred isn’t sleeping around—he’s a serial killer. Dave walks in on him just as Fred is slitting some poor woman’s throat.
Fred sees Dave and attacks him. In the fight that ensues, Dave manages to stab Fred in the gut. He falls into a nearby lake, and Dave assumes he is dead.
Meanwhile, Nancy tracks down the Bologna Queen, and learns that she was murdered three years ago. She pieces together that young women were murdered in all the towns where Fred has gone for his “optometrist conferences.” Uh-oh!
Dave returns to Holland and tells Nancy that yes, it’s true that Fred was hurting people, but that he “took care of it.” Dave neglects to tell Nancy that he killed her husband, and instead said he confronted him with evidence, and forced him to leave town. Dave tries to convince Nancy to run away with him, but she insists they stay through the Tulip Festival, to avoid suspicion. Nancy doesn’t want word to get out about Fred, for Harry’s sake.
So, they wait for tulip time. Dave is plagued by dreams about Fred, and digs up a gun buried in his backyard—suggesting his criminal past was more than just parking tickets. But when the festival rolls around, Fred unexpectedly shows up, alive.
Dave finds Nancy at the festival, and warns her that Fred is here. He tries to get her to run with him. But when Nancy sees that Dave has a gun, she takes her son and flees on her own. Dave follows her to a motel, and begs to talk. Nancy agrees. But when Dave tries to call the police, she resists. While trying to wrestle the phone from Dave’s hands, she accidentally pushes him over. The motel TV falls on his head. When Dave starts talking about seeing dogs in the room, Nancy realizes Dave is very seriously injured.
Before she can call an ambulance for Dave, Fred shows up. He convinces Nancy to drive away with him and their son, and pretend like nothing ever happened. He tells Nancy they are in this together now, and promises to take care of Dave’s body for her.
Nancy gets in the car with Fred and her son. Fred is coughing a lot, suggesting he is still weak from Dave’s attack by the lake. Nancy realizes this, and forces Fred to pull over. She yells at Harry to run. Then, using the gun she took from Dave, Nancy kills her husband.
Nancy rushes back to the motel where she left Dave. But when she gets there, he’s gone. In the final scene of the movie, we hear Dave reading a voiceover very similar to Nancy’s speech that opened the movie. Eventually, we hear the two of them reading the speech together, talking about meeting each other. The movie ends with the two of them saying, “Sometimes I wonder, was it even real?”
The Holland ending doesn’t explicitly tell us what happened to Dave, but the implication is that Dave survived and finally ran away. After all, he’d been trying to run for most of the movie—since that very first run-in with the cops at the eye doctor office. Through the film, we get hints of his criminal past. We don’t know what, exactly, he’s mixed up in, but the implication behind the buried gun is that it is violent. Or, at least, he thinks it’s violent.
By having Nancy and Dave read their final speech together, the implication is that Dave and Nancy are kindred spirits. Just like Nancy, Dave is a frightened, paranoid person. He makes up stories in his head that may or may not be true—like, for instance, calling child services on one of his students with minimal evidence. So maybe it’s for the best that Dave disappears at the end of Holland, rather than staying with Nancy. Two paranoid people together does not make for a stable relationship!
But hey, that’s just my interpretation of the movie. If you have a different take on the Holland movie ending, let me know in the comments.