Is Holland a True Story? Are Fred and Nancy Vandergroot Based on Real People?

Directed by Mimi Cave, Prime Video’s ‘Holland’ is a mystery thriller film that takes the audience on a rollercoaster journey that begins with the search for a lost earring. Nicole Kidman plays Nancy Vandergroot, whose random look around in her husband Fred’s stash leads her to discover evidence that points toward his infidelity. While her suspicions are called into question due to her habit of being paranoid about stuff, Nancy soon realizes that Fred might be hiding something that is much worse than an affair. The events of the film are enough to make the audience reconsider how much they know their own partner and what secrets they might not be privy to.

Holland’s Fictional Premise Challenges the Superficiality of Perfection

‘Holland’ is a fictional story written by Andrew Sodroski, who wrote the screenplay thirteen years before the film eventually got made. Citing David Lynch as his inspiration, the writer revealed that he wanted to write a story that focuses on a perfect little community, which seems safe and sound from the outside, but over the course of the story, that perfection is ripped away to reveal something darker underneath. He was drawn by the city of Holland in Michigan due to its connection to Dutch heritage, which is still celebrated with the Tulip Time festival. He saw it as a potent plot device that would help build the facade of a small-knit community where everyone seems to know everyone, and yet people are able to harbor their darkest secrets from the ones closest to them.

To lean into the theme of secrets and lies and break away from the idea of a perfect marriage, Sodroski concocted the fictional Vandergroots. In Fred, he created a pillar of the community who seems entirely spotless, and in Nancy, he created a seemingly perfect wife who has a perfect life, or at least so it appears on the surface. Through their superficial sense of calm, the writer wanted to explore what the breaking of this facade would lead to and how dark things can really get when a person refuses to accept what is right in front of them.

Mimi Cave Wanted an Authentic Portrayal of the Real Holland

Before Mimi Cave received the script of ‘Holland,’ years had passed since its inception. Still, when the director read the script, she felt a strange sense of connection with the place in the story as she grew up in the Midwest and could feel a sense of camaraderie with the place. Still, because Holland, Michigan, is such an important part of the story, she decided to leave no stone unturned when it came to presenting things as authentically as possible. She spent some time in the real Holland and visited the place during the Memorial Day parade to understand what it would look like on a day such as Tulip Time. She wanted to capture that energy and chaos that feeds into the story of Nancy and Fred.

Cave and her crew delved into research, perfecting everything from the costumes and the backgrounds to production design and the architecture of the place. Another thing that she focused on was to get the time period right. She shifted the original time period of the movie, which would have it taking place in a contemporary setup, to the year 2000, which helped her make characters like Dave fit in more, especially in the context of their fears and insecurities. The team focused on transforming the set into a close resemblance to the Holland of 2000, from the way the streets looked, to what shops and brands used to operate at the time, to the costume of the populace, and their prejudices that would make life difficult for an outsider. Cave tapped into all this to create tension in the story and make it feel more relatable despite the dark turn that it eventually takes.