Glad I finished that. I didn't really want to watch it because I knew it would be full of some stupid stereotypes of midwesterners and especially Holland michiganders many of whom are Dutch of course and Christian Reformed CRC or Reformed RCA.
But then I doubt Nicole Kidman has any idea about the difference between those two denominations. There has to be a backstory about why they chose Holland Michigan to try to make a mockery of. But I haven't found it so far in any of the reviews I've read online.
So Nicole Kidman plays a housewife named Nancy Vander Groot in Holland Michigan which is a small city on Lake Michigan about 30 miles from Grand rapids. Correction : she also works at the public high school in some capacity, but she acts more like a housewife.
The movie begins with her being a housewife and taking care of her son Harry. And acting shocked when he swears. They also make a point in another scene about saying "gosh darn" instead of "Go--amn " .
And In another scene they make a mockery of a lady who says to Nicole
"I will keep you in my prayers" as if that's something so trite and cliche. Of course they had to bring up the use of the word "pop" which some people use for soda in the midwest but it's really not something you hear too often. There's a scene where the father says "Hey Harry, how about some pop and milk".
And there's some Dutch singing in this movie which is also a little ridiculous because the use of the Dutch language was part of the immigrant experience back in the 30's etc but as far as I know there's not that many people in this day and age who still speak Dutch. Some might use it around tulip Time just for historic purposes- that's about it.
My grandfather was a pastor for the CRC and he spoke Dutch and English, with English his first language and Dutch second. But my dad spoke no Dutch at all. In fact my dad grew up in Holland partially, but also grew up in Southern California.
So Nicole meets a teacher and they start to become friends and he actually has a Latino background. In reality, Holland Michigan actually does have a fair amount of Latinos. But they have a scene where they show some white kids mocking him and calling him a "beaner" presumably meaning a bean picker even though he's a teacher.
As far as I know, white Hollanders don't have a problem with Latinos. I mean I grew up in Grand Rapids and rarely ever encountered Latinos there, much less in Holland even though I know they do have a population there.
And then somewhere along the way Nicole starts to suspect her husband who is an optometrist is having an affair. So she starts to play investigator, and enlists her school friend to help her.
And I won't give it all away, it's really not a great movie- it's not that suspenseful or interesting, but I had to watch it because it's about how in Michigan near where I grew up in Grand Rapids.. and I actually spent fair amount of time in Holland in the summers because it's right on the big lake.
And I actually taught in one of the Holland schools for half a year but not the public schools. I really just wanted to see what scenes they showed from Holland Michigan, but then I hear they filmed a lot of it actually in Tennessee- maybe even the tulip parade scene as well.
And I just wanted to find out why they chose to try to make a mockery of Holland Michigan. There must be a back story about somebody who felt spurned by the white Dutch of Holland Michigan. Maybe we'll never find out.
Anyways just for entertainment value, I wouldn't recommend it- it's not that great & it's a little bit sleazy. Definitely not for kids either. Fortunately I didn't have to pay to see it b/c I had just joined Amazon prime and I found out I could watch it on prime video for free. I only wish Prime Video had one of those buttons like YouTube where you could speed up the video and watch x2 .
That's all folks. 👎👎
