Do Not Trust a Grown Man With a Train Set, Part Infinity

But I, for one, am on Nancy’s side the whole time: Of course she should be suspicious—look at the man’s hobbies! His entire garage is set aside for a massive, intricately detailed, miniature version of Holland, Michigan, train included. He loves spending his time carefully constructing little houses—down to their patterned shingles and a front porch banner that says “Homecoming Queen”—and playing with all the tiny people. The whole thing gives off fairly rancid vibes from the moment it appears on screen. All the more so when Fred brings their young son Harry into the garage and encourages him to mess around with the tiny people, too.

Just as Nancy struggles to provide real evidence of her suspicions about Fred, I don’t exactly have “evidence” that men who own train sets and elaborate miniature constructions are innately untrustworthy. But like Nancy, I maintain that I am correct. (No spoilers about where those suspicions take her!!!) Like, just trust me.

“Most of Fred is pretty conventional, quite sweet, until it goes south. Until then, you’re just playing the family man, a devoted husband,” Macfadyen said at a Q&A after the premiere on Sunday. Fred presents as sweet and naive as any grown man drawn to children’s toys. Then, suddenly, he isn’t. “The more you lean into that,” Macfadyen said, alluding to Fred’s family man persona, “the better, because then the payoff is hopefully more interesting.”

There’s plenty I like about Holland, but I… honestly am still sitting with a lot of it, which I suspect is what Cave intends. I’m obsessed with its visuals (David Lynch, is that you?), its random but delightful Rachel Sennott cameo, its humor and self-awareness, Macfadyen’s performance as something of a folksy, midwestern Tom from Succession, and Kidman’s performance of a woman who trusts her instincts from start to finish—even if those instincts at times veer on delusion. To be clear, I will never call a woman “delusional” as a pejorative—delusional women everywhere (myself included) rise up!

But there are aspects of Holland that frustrate me. The film excels at world-building and establishing an ominous, suffocating atmosphere that arguably reads as a critique of today’s viral, tradwife influencers, not unlike Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling. You spend most of the movie waiting for a drop that I’d argue does deliver, at least on some level. But there are still too many ambiguities throughout for my taste. The movie feels like it’s circling a message or two without really landing. Its core product is mystery and pretense, the assurance that it’s hiding something deep and sinister. But beneath its gorgeous visuals lies a disappointing amount of hot air.

That being said, I’m still thinking about Holland and haven’t really been able to stop. It’s gripping and haunting and—validating for me, at least—it’s awful PR for adult men who own train sets.