As a mystery-thriller, "Holland" doesn't hold up. But as an exploration of secrets hidden deep within a marriage and where suspicion around those secrets can lead, it's worth dropping in for a visit.

Holland, Michigan, is the setting for this darkly comic tale, its small town feel and picturesque surroundings a perfect backdrop for its idealized version of suburbia. But like those insects crawling around in the soil in the opening moments of "Blue Velvet," director Mimi Cave and screenwriter Andrew Sodorski are more interested in what's going on beneath the surface than what's on top of it.

Nicole Kidman is Nancy Vandergroot, a home economics teacher at Holland High School, who is perfectly happy as a wife to her optometrist husband, Fred ("Succession's" Matthew Macfadyen), and as a mother to preteen son Harry (Jude Hill, "Belfast"). But her world is flipped on its ear when she begins to suspect her husband may be having an affair, and she becomes Nancy Drew trying to piece together the clues.

She enlists the help of a fellow teacher, Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), and their sneaking around intensifies the attraction between them. Soon Nancy is carrying on like she never would have before, using her suspicions as a justification for her actions.

"Holland" is at its best when the audience is trying to figure things out, just like Nancy. Is she crazy, are we crazy, is everyone crazy?

It crashes and burns in its final act, unable to sustain the weight of its Big Reveal. But until that point it's a fun, quirky ride, with a strong Kidman performance at its center; her character fancies herself quite the detective when she's rattling off phrases like "ipso facto," and there's a hilarious side moment when she's eating Little Caesars and watching "Mrs. Doubtfire" alone in her kitchen.

We spend plenty of time with and getting to know Kidman's character, but others around her — chiefly Fred and Dave — are thinly sketched and don't have enough meat on their bones.

Michiganians will appreciate the references to neighboring communities and other Michigan cities — Frankenmuth gets a name drop, as does Zingerman's in Ann Arbor — even if it was mostly filmed not in its namesake city, but in Tennessee.

"Holland" has plenty going for it, though its charms are mostly near the surface. The deeper you dig, the muckier it gets. Ipso facto, indeed.

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'HOLLAND'

Grade: C+

MPA rating: R (for some bloody violence, language and brief sexuality)

Running time: 1:48

How to watch: on Amazon Prime Video

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