My Policeman (2022)

By: Mike Ward on Friday, October 21

R Running Time: 113 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

Largely well-acted, My Policeman is an intriguing story of a bisexual love triangle, during a period of time when homosexuality and same-sex relationships were illegal (England, the 1950s) and adapted from a best-selling book by Bethen Roberts.
Harry Styles fans have been clamoring for this movie to be released. If you are a “Styler,” the time is now.
Has a lot going for it, in terms of costumes, score, and production design. The script is problematic at times, but the film looks terrific.

NO

Sure seems like the movie is a bit too comfortable brandishing bisexuality as some fraud or lie used to harm or hurt others. A lazy trope in an apparent forward-thinking movie is a significant obstacle to navigate around.
Specifically in the case of Marion, the female lead portrayed by Emma Corrin and Gina McKee, she seems obtuse and completely blindsided by plot points made incredibly obvious to viewers. The actors and the character deserve better writing.
I’m sorry if you are someone who cannot have an open mind as to human nature and thoughts and emotions. Even if you’re a Harry Styles fan, closemindedness has no place in the world of My Policeman.

OUR REVIEW

Harry Styles may be arguably the biggest music star in the world at the moment, but his efforts to emerge as a cinematic leading man in Hollywood have gone a bit under the radar. Overshadowed by all the scandal and controversy surrounding September 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling, his second starring role this fall, My Policeman, is getting a two-week theatrical run before landing on Amazon Prime Video in November. I feel like when David Bowie made the jump to movies or Barbra Streisand did it; or even Lady Gaga, it felt like a much bigger deal.

Here, not so much.

For all the drama that erupted around the release of Don’t Worry Darling, his new film, where he plays Tom, a young, mid-20s police officer falling in love with both a young schoolteacher, Marion (Emma Corrin), and artist and museum curator, Patrick (David Dawson), should be commanding people’s attention. However, the film is quietly being released, despite Corrin’s emergence as Princess Diana on the previous season of “The Crown,” and Styles’ A-list celebrity status leading the charge.

Styles, who has been tagged with unfair queerbaiting accusations in recent years for his gender fluid costumes and evasiveness regarding his sexual orientation, holds nothing back. To all who meet him, Tom is quiet, contemplated and conflicted. Those complicated emotions he shares will lead to those eventual relationship issues, inspired, in part by the life of novelist E.M. Forster.

Based on Bethen Roberts’ 2012 novel, My Policeman seems more salacious or provocative than it actually is. Honestly, the film offers minimal surprises, while struggling to establish whether we should be empathetic or angry at the trio of characters who lead us through this messy love story.

Marion falls first. Drawn in by Tom’s soft demeanor and kind nature, she matches his mood and energy and they begin a relationship. When he expresses an interest in art, fate leads them to the gallery overseen by Patrick, which, in turn, lights a stirring within Patrick…and also within Tom, as it turns out.

For context, the flashback sequences of the film take place in 1950s England, where being gay was still a crime. The LGBTQ+ community at the time lived in secret, sneaking into buildings with hidden gay bars and clubs embedded in basements. Constant lying occurred to friends, families, and neighbors. When Patrick and Tom first connect romantically, Tom retreats - afraid of what’s just occurred. He hides the affair from Marion and eventually they marry, leaving Patrick emotionally frustrated but dogged in continuing to share the love of his life with their “mutual friend.”

That Patrick views Marion as little more than a mutual friend, when Tom is in fact married to her, results in a story that screenwriter Ron Nyswaner never fully explores. As intriguing a movie as this is, it is equally as frustrating. Directed by former stage director Michael Grandage, My Policeman seems less interested in the complexity of bisexuality and far more interested in determining just how “gay” Tom actually is.

Is Tom so gay that he’d lie to Marion? Is Tom so gay that he’d sneak off to Venice with Patrick under misleading circumstances? Is Tom so gay that he has passionless sex with his wife, but shares a cigarette with Patrick in a post-coital embrace? Tom says he loves Marion, but here comes Patrick on their honeymoon to make them dinner. Slanted this way, it simply becomes hard to believe that Tom truly loved Marion, which makes this something of a tragedy for a character who is seemingly unwilling to see what’s happening before her.

Also troubling is the film more than hints to viewers that bisexuality could be viewed as a deceptive lie. In part, the framing device used by Grandage doesn’t minimize this problematic approach. Much of the film places us in 1990s England where a 60-something Marion (Gina McKee) has brought Patrick (Rupert Everett) to her and Tom’s home to take care of him after Patrick suffered a debilitating series of strokes and is unable to care for himself. Tom (Linus Roache), livid with Marion at the decision, refuses to help or even speak to him. It takes us two flashback scenes to start to figure out why. It takes Marion an entire film.

Corrin and McKee are both terrific, though you wish Grandage had allowed them more room to truly explore the complexity of what Marion is feeling. Dawson is convincing in his role and Styles is largely good, paired nicely with Roache, until he has to deviate from his effortless charm and presence and put some serious depth into his performance. For someone so enigmatic and charismatic on stage, Styles still struggles as an actor to find nuance when conveying emotion.

A spirited soundtrack punctuates the flashbacks, with a melancholy score from Oscar-winner Steven Price (Gravity) achingly bridging decades together. The film’s aesthetic strength lies in the flashback sequences, where Annie Symons’ costumes and Maria Djurkovic’s production design enhance the story being told on screen.

Lost in the entirety of My Policeman is that the best story the movie can present to us is sacrificed for a by-the-numbers melodrama where we are always more intuitive and aware of what’s unfolding than the main characters appear to be. As a result, the emotional stakes are lessened, the drama falls flat, and the movie struggles to make a meaningful connection to its audience.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, David Dawson, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, Rupert Everett, Kadiff Kirwan, Maddie Rice.

Director: Michael Grandage
Written by: Ron Nyswaner
Based upon the book “My Policeman” by Bethan Roberts
Release Date: October 21, 2022
Amazon Studios

Largely well-acted, My Policeman is an intriguing story of a bisexual love triangle, during a period of time when homosexuality and same-sex relationships were illegal (England, the 1950s) and adapted from a best-selling book by Bethen Roberts.

Harry Styles fans have been clamoring for this movie to be released. If you are a “Styler,” the time is now.

Has a lot going for it, in terms of costumes, score, and production design. The script is problematic at times, but the film looks terrific.

Sure seems like the movie is a bit too comfortable brandishing bisexuality as some fraud or lie used to harm or hurt others. A lazy trope in an apparent forward-thinking movie is a significant obstacle to navigate around.

Specifically in the case of Marion, the female lead portrayed by Emma Corrin and Gina McKee, she seems obtuse and completely blindsided by plot points made incredibly obvious to viewers. The actors and the character deserve better writing.

I’m sorry if you are someone who cannot have an open mind as to human nature and thoughts and emotions. Even if you’re a Harry Styles fan, closemindedness has no place in the world of My Policeman.