20 Sep TIFF REVIEW – ‘My Policeman’ is a tepid, dull, and tiresome gay melodrama
Queer cinema has progressed in leaps and bounds in recent years. We’ve finally reached a point where there’s a high bar that new films have to reach to be truly worthy of praise. That’s both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it’s pushing queer filmmakers to create daring new content we haven’t seen before. On the other, it makes something like the tepid, dull, and tiresome gay melodrama My Policeman feel like something the LGBTQ+ cinematic landscape left behind eons ago.
Perhaps we’d be falling over ourselves to applaud this film in, say, 1992 when examples of major queer cinema were so few and far between that the barest of minimums felt like a triumph. That’s no longer the case and presenting the same old story of historic gay trauma in 2022 is not only frustrating, it feels entirely unnecessary. A film with so little introspection that it plays like nothing more than pointless Oscar bait, My Policeman lacks any semblance of soul or depth in a drab piece of cinema that leaves little impact.
Set in seaside Brighton in the 1990s, we meet retired married couple Tom (Linus Roache) and Marion (Gina McKee) and find their monotonously mundane life complicated by the latter’s decision to house and nurse their old friend Patrick (Rupert Everett) after he suffered a recent stroke that’s left him in a wheelchair. Tom seems oddly against the idea and wants nothing to do with the man now taking residence in their guest room. A guilt-ridden Marion appears to be making some form of penance for her past. It’s back to the 1950s to uncover why.
It’s here we find the younger Tom (Harry Styles) working as a rookie policeman and in the midst of courting completely smitten trainee schoolteacher Marion (Emma Corrin). A chance encounter with local museum curator Patrick (David Dawson) leads to a close friendship between the three. But while Marion and Patrick’s relationship remains completely platonic, the latter forms a closer bond with Tom and a secret affair begins in the days of homosexuality still being considered a crime in the U.K.
It’s your basic love triangle plot we’ve seen many, many times before, yet told in such a stodgy, haphazardly constructed manner that robs the film of both velocity and emotion. While it’s true the non-linear construction is adapted from Bethan Roberts’ 2012 novel of the same name, it’s a dreadful framing device on screen. We’re constantly forced to check back in on the 90s setting, which grinds all momentum to a halt, especially given what’s happening in the future is not nearly as interesting as what occurred in the past.
The fatal flaw with My Policeman is Ron Nyswaner‘s screenplay which lacks any semblance of genuine character development or depth. We barely know anything about these people, both young and old, yet we’re expected to care about their messy past and complicated present. Compare it to queer films like Brokeback Mountain and Carol where richly crafted characters pull you into their lives and make you yearn for them to find happiness against the odds. You feel nothing here. Zilch. It doesn’t help there’s absolutely zero chemistry between any of the actors, no matter how hard this film attempts to fool us into believing they’re all madly in love with each other. And the less said about the stilted dialogue the better.
As for the cast, well, they’re certainly all trying their best, but even the greatest actors couldn’t make this screenplay work. After her breakout role in The Crown, Corrin deserves better than this, and you get the feeling she knows it. Dawson is easily the best in show with a charming performance full of dignity and inner turmoil. McKee, Roache, and Everett aren’t given all that much to do but stare into the distance and try to stay out of each other’s way. They don’t look or sound anything like their younger counterparts, so their casting is rather baffling and misguided.
And then there’s the film’s rock star cast member. You get the feeling this film wouldn’t be receiving half as much attention if not for Styles. He’s perfectly adequate here, but you can’t shake the feeling a more proficient actor may have made more of a potentially fascinating character like a closeted policeman in the 60s. When Tom is required to do nothing more than smoulder, speak softly, and flitter about in the background, Styles is entirely magnetic and dreamy. It’s when we reach the emotionally wrought scenes that Styles’ lack of experience really shows. He’s out of his depth here, even if he’s giving it his absolute all.
We should never forget the past and the shameful treatment of gay men who were thrown in jail for merely being who they are. But we’ve done this narrative so many times in films now that it’s all becoming rather redundant. Perhaps this is how many in the Black community feel when Hollywood trots out yet another slave film. If you’re going to serve up a narrative drowning in historical trauma, at least offer something new or eye-opening. Neither of those two words applies to My Policeman, which stands as just another generic attempt at queer representation by sticking gay characters in front of you and expecting applause.
Distributor: Amazon Studios
Cast: Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson, Rupert Everett, Kadiff Kirwan, Maddie Rice, Dora Davie, Jack Bandeira
Director: Michael Grandage
Producers: Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Robbie Rogers, Cora Palfrey, Philip Herd
Screenplay: Ron Nyswaner
Cinematography: Ben Davis
Production Design: Maria Djurkovic
Costume Design: Annie Symons
Music: Steven Price
Editor: Chris Dickens
Running Time: 113 minutes
Release Date: 4th November 2022 (Amazon Prime)