My Policeman
Harry Styles heads an impressive cast in Michael Grandage’s tearjerker spanning forty years.
Harry Styles and Emma Corrin
It has taken a decade for Bethan Roberts’ book to reach the screen, but it has been worth the wait. It is loosely based on the relationship the grand old man of English literature, E.M. Forster, had with a young policeman and his wife. He was himself writing at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK. His own novel on a similar subject, Maurice, about an upper-class gentleman’s sexual attraction to his gardener, was not published until after his death and then subsequently filmed by James Ivory in 1986.
In My Policeman there are three people involved in a difficult relationship. Patrick (David Dawson) is a professional art expert and amateur artist who moved to Brighton in the 1950s following the death of his male lover. He falls for Tom (Harry Styles) and offers to draw him as a way of getting to know the young policeman. The innocently gauche Tom, who wants a wife and children, has plans to marry his fiancée Marion (Emma Corrin). Gradually, however, Patrick and Tom develop a strong but illicit sexual relationship, initiated by Tom. Whether he was aware at the time of his true feelings before meeting Patrick is a mystery…
Much of the story is told in flashback from the 1990s to the 1950s and narrated by the older Marion (Gina McKee). The film opens in the 1990s when the older Patrick (Rupert Everett), following a stroke, is taken in by Marion to live with her and Tom (played by Linus Roache), although against Tom’s wishes. Then we get the full story from the 1950s which explains how the three resolved an impossible situation.
Michael Grandage directs Ron Nyswaner’s deftly written adaptation with great empathy for his leading characters caught up in a time when certain feelings had to be repressed. Then homophobia was rife and prison awaited those committing sexual improprieties. His casting seems ideal with Harry Styles really inhabiting the role of the young and apparently ‘straight’ Tom. David Dawson, as the slightly queenly man of culture, gives a subtly anxious performance. Perhaps Emma Corrin as the young Marion is sidelined a little but her older counterpart is played with supreme conviction by the brilliant Gina McKee. As the older Tom, Linus Roache fills in the true character of the ex-policeman, while Rupert Everett provides a moving and distressing performance as the older Patrick. Altogether, then, this is a touching tale evoking a difficult bygone age.
MICHAEL DARVELL
Cast: Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson, Rupert Everett, Kadiff Kirwan, Dora Davis, Jack Bandeira, Joseph Potter, Richard Dempsey, Freya Mavor, Lucy Briers, Charlotte Randle.
Dir Michael Grandage, Pro Greg Berlanti, Michael Grandage, Philip Herd, Cora Palfrey, Robbie Rogers and Sarah Schechter, Screenplay Ron Nyswaner, based on the book by Bethan Roberts, Ph Ben Davis, Pro Des Maria Djurkovic, Ed Chris Dickens, Music Steven Price, Costumes Annie Symons, Dialect coach Elizabeth Himelstein.
Amazon Studios/Berlanti-Schechter Films/Independent Entertainment/MGC Entertainment/The American Independent Film Company-Amazon Prime Video.
113 mins. USA. 2022. Rel: 21 October 2022. Cert 15.