My Policeman

Harry Styles isn't quite up to the challenges of this drama about a taboo gay romance in 1950s England.

And in “My Policeman,” Styles sheds all traces of celebrity to play an entirely ordinary person: a beat cop in 1950s England, navigating and resisting his true desires as he becomes embroiled in a complicated love triangle. “Don’t Worry Darling” presented any hints of swagger or glamour as a bad performance on the part of his character—albeit one that had the unfortunate effect of encouraging viewers to wonder whose bad performance they were really witnessing. [Harry Styles](https://www.chron.com/culture/music/article/harry-styles-austin-texas-17467973.php).

As long as the LGBTQ+ community faces oppression, stories like My Policeman will stay painfully relevant.

It’s understandable and necessary that marginalized filmmakers and writers have made a concerted effort to tell more than just the trauma stories of their communities. And they need to help join the fight about why we can never return to that.” But it does stand out among the modern landscape of queer media where there’s been a shift toward more lighthearted fare. According to the Florida passed its “ [Don’t Say Gay](https://www.fastcompany.com/90730684/the-stunning-mental-health-fallout-of-dont-say-gay-bills-like-floridas)” law, and Texas governor Greg Abbott’s [attacks on trans youth](https://www.fastcompany.com/90725074/tx-trans-directive) gained serious traction in 2022. Much of My Policeman’s gay love story takes place in 1957, when same-sex relationships were still criminalized in the UK.

“My Policeman” is based on the novel by Bethan Roberts, who has described being inspired by the life of famed British novelist E.M. Forster and his love triangle with a London police officer and the officer's wife, who became a good friend. From this, ...

While the sex scenes between Tom and Patrick are the ones that generate all the heat, his marriage to Marion is not loveless. We then return to the same scenes from Patrick’s perspective, to see that all along, Tom was having a passionate affair with Patrick — a passion Marion and Tom never achieved. It’s one that older Marion reads about in Patrick’s diaries, in a box of his belongings. — is to mute the confident pop-star magnetism, in service of the story. The biggest challenge for Styles, and for the studio that lists him as one of a six-actor ensemble — albeit at the top of the list, they’re not stupid! But “huge” is not the word to describe Styles’ performance in “My Policeman,” a deliberately paced, melancholy period piece about love, loss, pain, prejudice and the danger of living inauthentically.

This British period melodrama casts the pop star as a policeman in 1950s England, caught between the woman he's courting and the man he loves.

So does the word “policeman,” which is uttered with hard consonants and, often, a hint of a threat. My Policeman makes gestures towards a Rashomon-esque exploration of the construction of memory, cutting between the characters’ shared present and their different perspectives on the past as it methodically dispenses details about the events that led up to the current awkwardness at Tom and Marion’s cottage. The book details the chance meeting and subsequent romance between a much younger Tom (Harry Styles) and Patrick (David Dawson), which began before Tom started courting Marion ( [Harry Styles](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/harry-styles/) as the title character. My Policeman uses a handful of narrative contrivances to draw out the tragic backstory behind this gloomy trio’s fraught dynamic. It’s a film that comes by its stodginess honestly: Violently repressed mid-century Brits who frequent art galleries as a way of cloaking their class anxieties in the guise of “betterment” are bound to be dull.

Harry Styles, Emma Corrin and David Dawson star in the romantic and heartbreaking new movie.

To research the setting for her novel, My Policeman, Roberts shared with Vogue that she read novels, newspapers and memoirs. My Policeman is also set against a true historical background. In My Policeman, Patrick and Tom's wife Marion are close friends and in real life, Forster was good friends with Buckingham's wife May. government passed the Sexual Offences Act that decriminalized homosexuality between men over the age of 21 in private. Thankfully, Patrick and Tom don't die together at the end of My Policeman, but when the movie concludes, they are left standing together, their whole life behind them. In My Policeman the movie, it's not clear what the exact age difference is, but Patrick is noted to be a little older.

It has taken nearly a decade and the announcement of a film adaptation starring one of today's biggest pop stars for Bethan Roberts' third novel, ...

faced the “lavender scare” in the ’50s, across the pond in Britain, the home secretary promised to rid England of the homosexual “plague,” leading to a widespread police clampdown and the arrests of thousands of gay men. “For me, that scene will always be in the sea. A reimagining of this endurance of love resulted in My Policeman, which follows a dashing closeted man of the force, his tolerant schoolteacher wife, and a slightly older museum curator who becomes his secret lover. A self-described “middle-aged bookish type,” Roberts knew the star’s name, but it took a Google search for her to realize the scale Styles would bring to the project. The genesis of the novel can be traced to Roberts’s youth, specifically her obsession with James Ivory’s A Room with a View and its lush depictions of vacationing in Italy. [My Policeman](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a34080102/my-policeman-news-cast-spoilers-date/), to be published in the United States.

Michael Grandage's newest film “My Policeman” — based on the book by Bethan Roberts — is a romantic drama about a love triangle in 1950s England.

By focusing on queer narratives of the past, some historical LGBTQ+ dramas lack bravery when it comes to casting light on the present.

The final scenes of the film, too, are genuinely very moving – simple and affecting in their execution. [various headline-making comments](https://www.nme.com/news/music/harry-styles-calls-wasted-time-the-central-theme-in-lgbt-romance-drama-my-policeman-3307979) about the film finally portraying “tender” love-making between two men felt misguided – where has he been for the last decade of chaste, utterly sexless gay love stories? Later in life, an older Marion (Gina McKee) attempts to make amends by inviting a now-elderly Patrick (Rupert Everett) into their home as he recovers from a stroke. His hope is that Patrick can “share” him – but the arrangement quickly and predictably falls to pieces, with devastating results. Until 1967, homosexuality was illegal in the UK, and though Patrick is willing to take enormous risks, Tom instead marries quiet, mousy school teacher Marion to keep up appearances. By focusing on queer narratives of the past, some historical LGBTQ+ dramas lack bravery when it comes to casting light on the present.

Harry Styles stars in the romantic drama "My Policeman," which is out in selected cinemas now.

Linus Roache, Rupert Everett, and Gina McKee star as the older versions of Tom, Patrick, and Marion respectively. Dawson stars as Patrick, a museum curator who falls hopelessly in love with Tom. My Policeman is out in theaters now and is coming to Prime Video on Friday, November 4. Everett is best known for his performance as George in My Best Friend's Wedding and Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband. Corrin stars as Marion in My Policeman. When and Where is My Policeman Streaming?

Harry Styles, Emma Corrin and David Dawson star in an absorbing, resonant, deeply wistful adaptation of the 2012 novel "My Policeman."

Meanwhile, Tom, his unsuspecting girlfriend, Marion ( [Emma Corrin](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2021-08-25/words-from-mum-help-emma-corrin-overcome-struggles-on-the-crown)), and the worldly Patrick form a kind of troika and share an ebullient series of summertime adventures. [Ron Nyswaner](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-17-ca-24208-story.html) (“Philadelphia,” “The Painted Veil”). In addition, there’s something of a disconnect between the younger and older Tom’s personalities; their essences don’t fully align. Dawson also cuts a provocative, empathetic figure. It may not make for a hugely surprising turn but still one that’s beautifully understated and satisfying. [COVID-19 pandemic](https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fcoronavirus-everything-to-know-right-now&data=04%7C01%7Ckevin.crust%40latimes.com%7C52633c0a516544dd252a08d9e81168f0%7Ca42080b34dd948b4bf44d70d3bbaf5d2%7C0%7C0%7C637795983749169191%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=EARyZgH1vGMtlQdur%2F61n5fLiwKXExOWtv3guJOFSn8%3D&reserved=0). The intoxicating love “that dare not speak its name” between the two men is almost tangibly compelling. There’s a gentle guilelessness and quiet charm to Tom’s 1950s self that seems to have vanished from the surlier, more remote 1990s version (no fault of the capable Roache), the enduring and complex fallout of his affair with Patrick notwithstanding. [Harry Styles](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-05-19/harry-styles-harrys-house-new-album-review)) has a chance encounter with local museum curator Patrick (David Dawson) that turns into something much more than a friendship. For the onetime bobby, who’s pretty much shut away the “Patrick” chapter of his earlier life, the mere presence of his ex-lover — profoundly debilitated though he may be — is clearly too much for Tom to bear and he refuses to see him (not easy in such a small house). But when Tom and Marion marry, said trio turns into a pair of duos — and dueling ones at that — and the inevitable emotional, social and [sexual complications](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-06-09/harry-styles-my-policeman-gay-sex-scenes-grandage) ensue, including one extraordinarily grave betrayal. Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as [outlined by ](https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fprevent-getting-sick%2Fprevention.html&data=04%7C01%7Ckevin.crust%40latimes.com%7C52633c0a516544dd252a08d9e81168f0%7Ca42080b34dd948b4bf44d70d3bbaf5d2%7C0%7C0%7C637795983749169191%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=nefWQMdwU7TqNLnZDM1Kl%2F2rkP%2B5PyDh27paB0RaQGU%3D&reserved=0) [the CDC](https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fprevent-getting-sick%2Fprevention.html&data=04%7C01%7Ckevin.crust%40latimes.com%7C52633c0a516544dd252a08d9e81168f0%7Ca42080b34dd948b4bf44d70d3bbaf5d2%7C0%7C0%7C637795983749169191%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=nefWQMdwU7TqNLnZDM1Kl%2F2rkP%2B5PyDh27paB0RaQGU%3D&reserved=0) and [local health ](https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpublichealth.lacounty.gov%2Fmedia%2FCoronavirus%2Fguidances.htm&data=04%7C01%7Ckevin.crust%40latimes.com%7C52633c0a516544dd252a08d9e81168f0%7Ca42080b34dd948b4bf44d70d3bbaf5d2%7C0%7C0%7C637795983749169191%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=BCwyz5tpzXL3GixUXtBNZq2BJL8bzjSg4pezYCdtZOA%3D&reserved=0) [officials](https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpublichealth.lacounty.gov%2Fmedia%2FCoronavirus%2Fguidances.htm&data=04%7C01%7Ckevin.crust%40latimes.com%7C52633c0a516544dd252a08d9e81168f0%7Ca42080b34dd948b4bf44d70d3bbaf5d2%7C0%7C0%7C637795983749169191%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=BCwyz5tpzXL3GixUXtBNZq2BJL8bzjSg4pezYCdtZOA%3D&reserved=0).

My Policeman's Gina McKee speaks on playing the older version of Marion, coordinating with Emma Corrin, and how she viewed the character's dilemma.

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. I think there's no doubt that there's hope for Marion, and I hope that Patrick and Tom can find what they need together. But I think ultimately what she has to admit is that their love is born out of solace and that solace, although it's been a very useful, comforting retreat, it can't be forever. I think that makes for a wonderful challenge as a performer that you have a lot of nonverbal communication which is raging, but on the outside, you've got everyday life being presented. I think the distillation of having to work that way was good because it really makes you focus. Gina McKee portrays the older version of Emma Corrin's Marion, a schoolteacher who finds herself immersed in a love triangle with her husband Tom (Harry Styles), a closeted gay policeman, and Patrick (David Dawson), a museum curator.