My Policeman Movie Review: Harry Styles is Stuck Amidst a Frustrating Love Triangle With Emma Corrin and David Dawson in This Suspenseless Drama (LatestLY Exclusive)

My Policeman Movie Review: After starring in the mixed Don’t Worry Darling this year, Harry Styles strives for another breakout role in Michael Grandage’s My Policeman, which adapts the 2012 novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts. While there is a bunch to be admired here, there is still a fleeting sense of a missed opportunity that the movie never truly is able to shake off. Don’t Worry Darling Movie Review: A Dedicated Florence Pugh and a Lacklustre Harry Styles Are Mangled Up in Olivia Wilde's Aimless Thriller (LatestLY Exclusive).

Set in 1950s Brighton where homosexuality is still illegal, a gay policeman named Tom Burgess (Harry Styles) falls for a museum curator named Patrick Hazlewood (David Dawson). In an effort to keep his relationship a secret, he ends up marrying the local school teacher Marion Taylor (Emma Corrin) so it can be put up as a wall of convenience and the love triangle begins. The film also keeps on switching back to the present showcasing older versions of the characters with Patrick (Rupert Everett) being on bedrest while Marion (Gina McKee) and Tom (Linus Roache) help him out.

With My Policeman, a bunch of eyes are going to be on Harry Styles and its essentially his performance that makes or breaks the film, and sadly the star turns in a wooden act that doesn’t capitalise on much of the drama. Portraying a closeted gay man who is trying to hide his relationship from the world while trapped in a marriage of convenience, a lot of emotions could have been portrayed with the performance, yet Styles lets go of all the charm and expressions that could come along with a diverse role like this.

As a matter of fact, Linus Roache makes for a more complicated Tom and succeeds in portraying the internal conflict of the character better than Styles. With a limited amount of screen time, there is a good chunk of depth added to Tom in those moments and the weakness showed by the character is more effective when Linus is at the steering wheel.

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Unfortunately, the performance of Styles also ends up affecting his chemistry with David Dawson’s Patrick Hazlewood. While a speck of exciting romance is expected off the duo, the mismatch between their energies is so palpable that it just ends up making the relationship seem like a bore. There are few exciting scenes that bring out the steaminess of its two leads, and while it does add a bit of a pizzazz, the sadness of the situation ends up feeling subpar and the relationship never feels meaningful or one that you would want to root for.

While Styles’ wooden deliverance makes for a hindering watch – a good thing does end up coming out of it. To showcase his passionless portrayal towards Marion, who essentially knows after a point what’s going on, that disinterest makes for some compelling drama as this loveless marriage tries to trudge through the lies its foundation was built upon. That chemistry is what makes Marion such an interesting character and The Crown’s Emma Corrin portrays that dynamic in a heartfelt way which makes her performance stand out in My Policeman.

The concept of a love triangle that at its core has many selfish undertones to it with Marion’s lack of knowledge about it being heartbreaking, My Policeman actively goes one step forward to not do anything meaningful with it. Most of it can end up feeling construed as a surface-level exploration of homosexuality in the 1950s, and that effectively robs the movie’s own nature of wanting to tell a layered story that is as bland as it could be. It tries something similar that its contemporaries like Brokeback Mountain and Portrait of a Lady on Fire succeeded at, which is showcasing a personal same-sex relationship in a complicated time, but My Policeman just couldn’t achieve those same heights. The White Lotus Season 2 Review: Aubrey Plaza, Michael Imperioli Stand Out in This Brilliant Return of Mike White’s Addictive Drama! (LatestLY Exclusive).

A drama that ends up lacking all the suspense of its intriguing concept, My Policeman ultimately does end up making to its finish line with some well-acted snapshots of the future of these characters, and even then, the payoff just comes across as underwhelming.

Yay!

Emma Corrin’s Performance

Nay!

Suspenseless Story

Harry Styles’ Wooden Performance

Final Thoughts

My Policeman has a good film lying underneath its underwhelming execution. A love-triangle that could have provided some meaningful commentary and at the same time also provided some compelling drama, there is just too little over here that will warrant your attention and make you want to reach till the finish line. My Policeman is streaming on Amazon Prime Video right now.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 04, 2022 05:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).