Clogs. Tulips. Liberal thinking. Three things that spring to mind when you think of the wonderful country that is Holland.

Snuggled nicely between Germany and Belgium, Holland is a perfect destination for a weekend away. Or so it was, but not anymore. Simply because it just doesn’t exist.

In 2019 the Dutch government decided to have a rebrand, as the term ‘Holland’ actually referred to a region of the country, and not the country as a whole. They wanted to do it ahead of 2020 as they were hosting both the Eurovision and the UEFA European championships, and so rebranded themselves as the Netherlands.

The country may no longer exist but the name lives on, as it’s the name of a city in Michigan, that leans into the history of its former namesake country, and also features in this new Prime Video original, starring Nicole Kidman.

They are proud of their Dutch heritage in Holland, Michigan, with the city brimming with the tulips they put on display, as well as their authentic Dutch windmill.

Living there is Nancy Vandergroot (Kidman), husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) and son Harry (Jude Hill). They are stalwart members of the community, with Nancy a teacher at the local high school and Fred an optometrist.

Everything is fine, on the surface at least, but Nancy becomes suspicious with the amount of time Fred is going away on business, with conferences happening seemingly on a weekly basis.

She starts to believe that he is having an affair, and is keen to prove it, so ropes in fellow teacher and friend Dave (Gael Garcia Bernal) to help her out.

And so begins her investigation, but what is it that her husband is guilty of exactly?

This is director Mimi Cave’s follow up to her entertaining directorial debut, 2022’s Fresh starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan. They both actually share similar themes, but their direction is very different.

It’s the perfect example of a how important a script is; Cave does well visually, quite playful in places, especially where the model railway that features in the film is concerned. But the script, written by feature debutant Andrew Sodroski is a woefully uneven affair. It lacks a constant tone, lacking a comfortable consistency, jumping all over the shop.

It struggles with pacing too, with the first two thirds in no hurry to get anywhere in particular, any time soon.

The final third takes the film in a slightly different direction, which should be a shock and surprise, but as it took so long getting there, it gives the audience plenty of time to not only work it out, but also not really care.

The performances also suffer from both the weak script and lack of direction, with everything being just all too underwhelming, especially the relationship between Kidman and Bernal, which is far from convincing at any point.

The only thing that gives it any sense of originality is the setting, with a strong Dutch theme throughout, which sadly amounts to nothing more than pretty window dressing.

Cave is clearly influenced by the work of David Lynch, in particular, his 1986 Blue Velvet, which offers a deviant look at Americana, as this desperately wants too, but just fails miserably in doing so.

Perhaps this film needs to take a page out of the Dutch government’s book and attempt a total rebranding, but even then, much like the real thing, it will still be undeniably Holland .