Film Review: My Policeman

Director: Michael Grandage
Starring: Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Gina McKee
Running Time: 113 minutes

Based on the novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts, My Policeman has received mixed reviews, but I found it a fragile interpretation of 1950s repression during the harsh treatment of the LGBTQ+ community. Inspired by the relationship between the novelist, E.M. Forster, his lover, who was a policeman, and his lover’s wife, the film is set in Brighton and follows a decade-long love story.

Michael Grandage’s adaptation tells the story of the schoolteacher, Marion, her police officer husband Tom, and his forbidden love, Patrick. It begins in 1999, when the trio are retirees, with Marion (Gina McKee) welcoming Patrick (Rupert Everett) into her home with Tom (Linus Roache), to recover from an illness. The reunion sparks Marion’s memory and, with Patrick’s journals in hand, she falls into a deep reminiscence. 

In a series of flashbacks to 1957, Marion (played as a young woman by Emma Corrin) recollects Tom’s attempts at courting her during their youth. Tom (Harry Styles) introduces her to Patrick (David Dawson) in an attempt to impress her with a museum trip. Patrick subsequently becomes a third wheel, joining them for dates or day trips. 

Just as Tom is delicately navigating his way around courting Marion, barely understanding anything about his own sexuality, Patrick falls passionately in love with Tom, and they begin a secret relationship (during the time when homosexuality was a criminal offence). Styles’ performance and presence is assured in this role, an improvement from the far less confident portrayal of Jack in last month’s release, Don’t Worry Darling.

My Policeman leans towards a Rashoman-esque exploration of the construction of memory, cutting between different characters’ shared present and their various perspectives on the past. But it loses momentum towards the middle and, combined with a plot twist that’s obvious to everyone except the characters, the dramatics seem to derail before the tear-jerking end scene. 

Sometimes less is more. The earnest nature of this film is at times lost to cliché, especially when Tom and Patrick take a trip to Venice. The montage of gondolas, and sneaking kisses in narrow streets, and a naked bottom appearing in golden light as a choir erupts with a chorus of Vivaldi’s Gloria, is a bit much. 

But the film retains a sense of poignancy that is worth a watch. The themes are fragile and important to convey, matched with some highly-regarded actors that carry the plot through. 

Did you know? Lily James was originally cast but dropped out and was later replaced by Emma Corrin.

The Policeman is currently showing at Broadway cinema