Harry Styles is having a moment, and My Policeman(2022) seems to be banking on that moment. Styles is featured prominently in the trailer and marketing for the film, and is one of many ridiculously good-looking actors cast in the film.
Based on the eponymous novel by Bethan Roberts, the film tells an overly familiar story of a love triangle that includes policeman Tom (Styles), who’s involved with schoolteacher Marion (Emma Corrin), but also art curator Patrick (David Dawson). The usual complications occur while these three characters interact in the 1950s, with a closeted gay man marrying a woman while having an affair with a man in secret.
A non-linear storytelling structure helps keep up a little suspense between the flashbacks to these characters in the 50s and the 1990s. Another set of gorgeous actors play these characters 40 years later (Gina McKee, Linus Roache, and Rupert Everett), who are all dealing with the implications of events from when they were younger.
Tom and Patrick’s love story in the past does testify to what closeted gay life was like in 1950s England by including hidden gay bars, the threat of arrest due to sodomy laws, and the possibility of careers being ruined if a person’s homosexuality came to light. Marion’s story of being married to a closeted gay man hits all the usual marks, and, while the viewer can feel for her, some of her moments fall flat.
Gorgeous cinematography helps to distract from these flat scenes and moments. Swimming lessons between Tom and Marion in the 50s are swoon-worthy, and the home they share in their later years in the coastal town of Brighton makes for some amazing shots of these characters staring off into the beautiful distance, lost in thought.
An attempt was made at making the older actors look the age their characters are supposed to be, but McKee and Roache need more than just a few gray hairs to be believably in their 60s. Rupert Everett, however, is able to achieve that with just some salt and pepper stubble and a few wrinkles.
Most of the film can be engaging, but there are some moments that aren’t as much. The final scene, however, can be very moving and emotional to viewers.
My Policeman is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
—Eric Beach