The emotional story of love and desire that My Policeman, starring Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, and David Dawson, attempts to fall short.
Synopsis
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A convoluted love triangle involving Tom (Harry Styles/Linus Roache), Patrick (David Dawson/Rupert Everett), and Marion (Emma Corrin/Gina McKee) begin in 1950s Britain in this movie adaptation by screenwriter Ron Nyswaner of Bethan Roberts’ novel of the same name.
On a lovely day at Brighton Beach, Marion (Corrin) is seen falling for Tom as the movie opens. As he teaches her to swim, they start to get more intimate. Their interaction develops into a dating relationship.
He is a young police officer, and she is a teacher. Tom is a guy from the working class with modest interests. While Marion is educated and focused on the arts.
Tom starts studying paintings to impress Marion, but after an accidental encounter with Patrick (David Dawson), a museum curator, things change. Tom and Marion are invited by Patrick to join him on a tour of the museum.
The group gets along well as they converse about art and travel. However, we soon learn that Tom and Patrick are having a secretive relationship. At times, it even seems as though Patrick might be attracted to Marion and she to him.
Tom proposes to Marion while trying to hide his sexual orientation, and the two later get married to Patrick purporting to be Tom’s best man.
Things quickly spiral out of control after Marion unintentionally witnesses Tom and Patrick sharing a tender moment, which makes Marion worried about their tight friendship.
Marion stays by Tom’s side despite her misgivings about their closeness until Patrick invites Tom on a work trip to Venice while pretending to be recruiting him as a museum assistant.
While Tom and Patrick are gone having a romantic adventure, Marion starts to feel anxious and tries to save her marriage by telling the police who Patrick is. Tom loses his job at the police station, and Patrick is put in jail because, at the time, homosexuality was a crime.
Several years later, Marion (Gina McKee) makes an effort to make amends by reuniting Tom (Linus Roache) and Patrick (Rupert Everett).
Gaining Ground
The three main characters in My Policeman’s narrative beautifully express love and longing in various contexts. It’s particularly moving to see older versions of Tom, Patrick, and Marion as they come to terms with their intertwined relationships while reflecting on everything they lost and gained through their journeys of loving each other.
The movie, which is set in two different timelines, does a fantastic job of capturing the changing dynamics between its protagonists. In comparison to the younger performers, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, and Rupert Everett do a far better job of carrying this emotionally delicate story. Scenes between McKee and Everett in particular feel quite moving.
Minus Points: To portray a homosexual romance that is moving and heartfelt, My Policeman needed to have more heart. Despite having serious pace concerns, the movie fails to make us care strongly about the characters.
The conclusion looks especially hasty. Additionally, the tale needed better acting, and Harry Styles in particular feels miscast as Tom because the singer-actor lacks the depth needed for the role.
Given that none of the characters’ backgrounds are given much information outside of the perspective of their relationships, the characters may be more complex.
Opinion: What immediately feels admirable in My Policeman is that director Michael Grandage makes a sincere effort to convey just the right amount of poignancy in each frame of the movie, even when his performers fall short of doing so.
As we witness Patrick (Dawson) enter shady bars and back alleys of pubs in search of a moment of pleasure, Grandage effectively evokes the tension and repression of the 1950s. At the same time, the movie beautifully captures the spontaneity that art gives Patrick’s existence as a secretly gay man. This movie’s emotional impact is further increased by Steven Price’s stirring score, which joins Grandage and Ben Davis’s stunning visuals.
In terms of acting, David Dawson steals the show with his outstanding depiction of Patrick, who is simultaneously a self-assured art curator and painter but also a sensitive lover.
Harry Styles and Emma Corrin particularly fall short of giving their best to their characters. Given how easily he handles Patrick’s complexity, Dawson strikes one as the ideal option for the part.
When it comes to Styles, the actor’s line delivery feels dated for the time, and his inconsistent accent doesn’t help either. Roache, Everett, and McKee’s performances continue to be much smoother in sequences set in the present.
Although having multiple timelines might be a brilliant storytelling device, My Policeman’s inconsistent performances from the younger and older ensemble prevent it from being a fully cohesive experience.
The current plot doesn’t seem as closely related to the past as it ought to. The movie drags the most during the sequences that take place in the present. Not to mention the apparent chasm between the two periods and how the backstories that developed for the individuals throughout time seem to be lacking.
We are curious to learn a lot about Patrick’s story as we first meet the formerly charismatic patient. The tension of Tom’s struggle to embrace himself and his sexuality, which drives the majority of the movie, never seems quite as intense as it should.
Overall, My Policeman feels like a squandered opportunity because its disappointing performance leaves room for improvement. It also fails to completely convey the heartbreaking story’s spirit. The movie might have been quite different if it had a better cast.
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