“My Policeman” with Harry Styles: an interesting story that sinks into a weak development

Brighton, a beautiful coastal city located in the south of England, is the main setting for “My Policeman”, the new Prime Video movie starring Harry Stylesan artist who, at 28 years of age, and after achieving many successes in his role as a singer, has been developing an acting career at the same time with titles such as “Dunkirk” (2017) by Christopher Nolan and was recently in “No te Don’t Worry, Honey” alongside Florence Pugh and Chris Pine.

Planned as a drama lasting almost two hours, “My Policeman” tells the story of the handsome cop Tom Burgess (Styles), and the simple school teacher Marion Taylor (Emma Corrin) in the fifties. We will be witnesses from her first contacts, to her marriage, going through a series of events typical of conventional falling in love.

Although the chemistry in this couple is undeniable, it is not difficult to find differences between the two. Tom is much more earthy and practical, while Marion enjoys art and good conversation. None of this, however, prevents the relationship between the two from escalating at an accelerated pace. Until a third person appears to disrupt everything.

Patrick Hazlewood (David Dawson) is a dashing art curator who works at a city museum. Although he appears to enjoy his life as a single man and working on what he loves, the truth is that he must spend his days hiding his homosexuality from him. In England at that time, loving a person of the same sex was not only frowned upon but also persecuted.

Perhaps because of this detail, the bond that Patrick and Tom begin to build after meeting is particularly atypical. The first is distrustful and distant from the forces of order, and the second defends his behavior (“If you don’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to fear”). It didn’t take many meetings for the looks, the alcohol and the silences to transform, first, into a show of affection and, later, into an explosion of unbridled eroticism.

Parallel to this story, let’s say from the past, “My Policeman” presents us with another narrative line. We are in the nineties and our three protagonists are older adults. Patrick (Rupert Everett) has arrived in an ambulance at the home of Marion (Gina McKee), who, despite Tom’s (Linus Roache) rejection, agrees to shelter him as a guest and assist him while he recovers from the consequences of a stroke. The house almost adjoins the seashore, so each wave hit will be an opportunity for the plot – as if we were talking about a pendulum – to take us from the past to the present of this love triangle.

Michael Grandage’s film has as its central theme homosexual love in 1950s England. In addition to the symbolic importance of the sea that we have already discussed, there is a unifying element between both shots: the diaries that Patrick wrote in his youth and that, as an adult, Marion reads in silence while Tom denies having the sea just a few meters away. man who taught her to love.

Although the theme itself is interesting, its development is often weak. If in the past we see small sequences that quickly overlap one another (swimming lessons, tour of the library, dialogue in the bar, etc.) without allowing the creation of an atmosphere of plot enjoyment, in the present everything that happens within Marion’s house is predictable (arguments, reproaches, running away, and repeating everything again).

If we talk specifically about the role played by Styles, it should be said that, although he has the label of the protagonist, in “My Policeman” this does not seem to fit him. Dawson does brilliantly play a curator who hides out in seedy bars to be happy, and Corrin shines as a woman who goes from being captivated by Tom’s “masculinity” to appalled by the “unnatural” of its orientation. None of the latter motivates her to get away from her husband, on the contrary, she seems more determined not to get away from him.

In the specific case of the former member of One Direction, beyond the challenge of the character, his ability to transmit to the audience is reduced to two or three scenes. In one of them, perhaps the most interesting in nearly two hours, he bangs on the table in anger because Patrick tells him how he should treat his wife. After this, the question then arises: what additional has Styles offered us playing Tom that another mid-level actor in Hollywood could not have given us?

Of course, a number of possible explanations will arise here. For some, the script for “My Policeman” may be clearly unambitious. There are no major intentions to delve into the depth of its main characters, so sometimes we end up witnessing a mere succession of logical and chronological events: falling in love, infidelity, crisis and forgiveness. Under these circumstances, the end result is clearly inconsequential.

MY POLICEMAN/ PRIME VIDEO

Synopsis: My Policeman is a story of forbidden love and shifting social conventions that follows three young men – policeman Tom, teacher Marion and museum curator Patrick – as they embark on an emotional journey through 1950s Britain. Set in the 1990s, Tom, Marion and Patrick continue to feel homesick and regretful, but now have one last chance to make amends for the past.

Director: Michael Grandge.

Cast: Harry Styles, David Dawson, Emma Corrin.