HOLLAND

Teacher Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman) thinks she has the perfect life in Holland, Michigan. She's married to her successful optometrist husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) and they share their 13-year-old son Harry (Jude Hill). However, Nancy's world comes crumbling down when she begins to suspect Fred, who is always away at work conferences, is having an affair. She enlists the help of fellow teacher and friend Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal) to assist in her investigation to prove Fred's guilt. The first 2 acts of this story were enjoyable, presenting the audience with a faux Hitchcockian inspired story that turns on the audience in the 3rd act (nice swerve by the way as I didn't see that coming). However, the story also (clumsily) falls apart during this period as well. Kidman is graceful, tender, and sweet, the perfect wife for this story while García Bernal sticks out like a sore thumb. You can tell his casting was based more on checking a box than on talent. Disappointed in the ending but I was engaged for the first 90 minutes or so. Worth the watch on Prime. 6/10

THE BANK JOB (2008)

Martine Love (Saffron Burrows), former model and sometimes drug dealer, brings to her one-time lover Terry Leather (Jason Stratham), a plan to rob the safe deposit vault of a bank whose alarm system is off line for repairs. She doesn't tell him that she's being blackmailed by MI5 (o r6?) to retrieve compromising photos of Princess Margaret from one of the boxes. Terry puts together several amateur, low-level villains to tunnel into the vault. They score millions in cash and jewels--and critical stuff belonging to a pornography titan with police on his payroll, a bordello owner with politico clients and a black militant drug dealer---all of whom will stop at nothing to retrieve their valuables. Lots of moving parts, but director Roger Donaldson keeps them humming in synch, so you never lose track of the connections. The heist is absorbing. This film is based on a real life British heist. Very entertaining.