My Policeman Review (2022 Movie)

MY POLICEMAN is the equivalent of a balloon deflating for 2 drawn out hours. The mostly competent cast attempts, but ultimately fails, at elevating an unfocused story.

The Harry Styles experiment seems to be continuing full throttle as the actor sees his second major starring vehicle of the year: MY POLICEMAN about to be delivered to a wide audience by way of Prime Video after performing its festival run. A scenario where art imitates life, as such like there was tumult underneath a sun-drenched Venice in September, not everything is sunshine and rainbows underneath the idyllic skies of Brighton.

Based on the novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts, the story takes place in two different time settings: one in the 1990s as the arrival of elderly invalid Patrick (Rupert Everett) into Marion (Gina McKee) and Tom’s (Linus Roache) home triggers the exploration of seismic events from 40 years previous, in the 1950s, where the passionate relationship between Tom and Patrick unravels at a time when homosexuality was illegal.

Despite clamor from fans of the novel, it does not seem the film is garnering much anticipation, feeling like it will live or die through the support of Styles’ fanbase, which in it of itself feels inevitable. The real question is if it can somehow resonate with a general audience as this novel adaptation an overly melodramatic period romance as dull and uninteresting a bag flying in the wind.

It’s the kind of bad movie that is difficult to talk about, as it’s entirely competent from a technical standpoint; with very well shots and narratively seamless transitions from scene to scene that make the storyline(s) cohesive, and the sound is clear making every line spoken easy to understand, so it’s a bad movie not due to any particularly horrible, incompetent or devoid of quality pieces, it’s instead the absolute lack on anything of actual quality of merit that makes it such a slog, as it doesn’t so much feel like a movie: but rather Sunday afternoon well behaved drama that gets repeated consistently on TV, one to be used as background noise while doing chores, or even writing up a review such as this one.

Let’s start with the fact that every cast member evolved, yes even Styles, attempt to add emotional depth to a film completely devoid of focus, clear intentions and even semblance of thematic purpose, making it extremely hard for anyone involved to give a believable performance able to convey emotions where the script makes it all so muddle, and if veteran actors struggle bring such painfully below average material to life, it’s no wonder poor Styles’ on-screen inexperience is awkwardly obvious at every framed, even the fantastic Emma Corrin wrestles with attempting to elevate such colorless, unexciting ideas.

It’s no help either that despite two different versions of each character being featured, no bit of characterisation is added for two hours that elaborates further beyond the surface. Whilst the potential is present given the time setting and the inner conflict for the characters being evident, the film’s structure is a massive detriment that impedes any complex emotions from being presented or explored. Tom struggles with his homosexuality, not just due to the time and the legal dangers that come with it, but because society and culture have obviously indoctrinated him into thinking it wrong or sinful.

While there is an attempt at showing him as sympathetic due to this supposed struggle, there really isn’t one, emotionally at least, Tom is gay and he is utterly in love with Patrick, him and Marion marry at one point, but while he claims to love her or at least struggle with his feelings for the entire runtime, there really isn’t a doubt in Tom’s mind, and therefore ours, where his true feelings lie, and so we’re meant to empathize with a character who lies to himself and pulls an innocent girl into the false existence he’s crafted for himself to be safe, while lying to her all the way through, for years and year.

But the film isn’t really about him, because while we follow an older Tom who is harboring a secret grudge against Patrick, who is brought back into his life years after being apart. We’re not given any insight into the reason for this grudge until the last third of the film, and it honestly doesn’t make too much sense. The film prefers to keep Tom’s repressed emotions a secret for the most part, and so, it’s not so interesting to focus on his older self, rather we shift to following the story and memories of his wife Marion; who is at first the most interesting character of the three but slowly transforms into yet another unlikeable pseudo-protagonist.

As to make the focus even more confusing, Marion brings us back into the 50s by way of reading Patrick’s diary from when he was young; an interesting perspective in concept, but sooner rather than later it is revealed that Marion is not just discovering these diaries in her old age, in more ways than one, she knew about the diaries and more importantly she knew the “secrets” Patrick and Tom were hiding from her. We’re given glimpses into Tom and Marion’s early life in marriage and how she herself struggled to keep living and pretending to be happy despite knowing Tom’s real feelings and about his lies, so she ends up becoming a character who pulls herself into and maintains a false life, only to emotionally torture Tom in his old age by bringing Patrick back into his life.

Finally, there’s Patrick: Tom’s one true love who, while not lying to himself about who he is and who he loves, is still a victim to the vitriol and homophobia of the time, yet he reveals himself to be an emotional terrorist towards Marion, playing the part of friend all through their lives. In essence, Patrick goads and encourages Tom to marry Marion and attempt at building a life with her, where everything is as peachy as the wardrobe the young couple wears to the Brighton beaches in the summer, while keeping their relationship a secret behind her back.

Even poking at Marion in such a roguish way that the sympathy we once felt for him begins to quickly disappear as he is intentionally harmful to her, continuously prioritizing him and Patrick’s relationship despite claiming to care for her and seeing how much Marion aches whenever Tom runs off with him to Venice or to a dinner. Patrick is keenly aware of what his presence, and how Tom looks at him, hurt Marion and yet carries on as if she was not affected, yet another character who repeatedly claims something but never acts upon his supposed feelings and motivations.

All these stifled characters that are so contradictory to watch should by all measure make for one incredibly frustrating experience: however, the result is ultimately an immensely entertaining one; as there really isn’t a single boring moment through the runtime of MY POLICEMAN; the dialogue is so incredibly soapy it is hard to believe it got the greenlight and made the final cut of the film, lacking all the necessary elements to pull of supposed emotional depth with a very misguided screenplay.

Editing choices are unbelievably baffling as well, jarring jumping beats from timeline to timeline prove to be tonally unfit connective tissue more often than not, bringing us back to the problem of perspective: the film attempts to explore Tom’s repression by way of Marion’s interpretation of events as she reads Patrick’s diary, who himself is presenting his perspective of events from back in the 50s. It’s the kind of glorious mess where everything falls flat despite so much spaghetti being thrown at the wall, nothing sticks, but so many lines becoming memorable, for all the wrong reasons: the result is a fantastic opportunity to gather some friends, pop open some beers and order pizza to experience unintentionally laughable sappiness as it unravels.

MY POLICEMAN is the equivalent of a balloon deflating for 2 drawn out hours. The mostly competent cast attempts, but ultimately fails, at elevating an unfocused story lacking clear conflict or protagonist. Absolutely no energy to the characterizations or the drama, making it a bland yet entertaining mess.

FINAL GRADE: D

NEXT: Don’t Worry Darling Review (2022 Movie)

About My Policeman

A story of forbidden love and changing social conventions, My Policeman follows three young people – policeman Tom (Harry Styles), teacher Marion (Emma Corrin), and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson) – as they embark on an emotional journey in 1950s Britain.

Flashing forward to the 1990s, Tom (Linus Roache), Marion (Gina McKee), and Patrick (Rupert Everett) are still reeling with longing and regret, but now they have one last chance to repair the damage of the past. Based on the book by Bethan Roberts, director Michael Grandage carves a visually transporting, heart-stopping portrait of three people caught up in the shifting tides of history, liberty, and forgiveness.

My Policeman is playing in select theaters now.