Making its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival 2022, then landing in Europe at the BFI London Film Festival, My Policeman is the second starring effort by Harry Styles, the pop icon looking for his place in the film world.
England, 1990s: Marion and Tom have been married for nearly four decades, living in a small town on England’s south coast. Patrick is recovering from a stroke that confined him to a wheelchair and limited his communication skills. Marion has decided to take in an old friend of the couple to take care of him. Tom is unhappy with this choice and does not want to meet Patrick. The reasons go back to the 1950s when the three were inseparable friends. Tom was a policeman on the beat on the streets of Brighton, Marion a teacher, and Patrick the director of the local museum. The present is intertwined with the past, revealing the reasons for the separation of this triangle.
Based on the homonymous novel by Bethan Roberts, My Policeman is a melò whose film transposition does not betray its literary origin, thanks to the very diligent direction of Michael Grandage, who avoids stylistic lapses, caring instead for the concreteness of the narrative and atmosphere. The set-up is more television than film, a fairly standard feature in British cinema, anchored in the tradition of quality products for the small screen—a limitation on the one hand and a possibility on the other. From the 1980s onward, the British film industry has been fed with average movies worthy of not being disfigured at festivals and, above all, with a strong market ahead.
My Policeman falls perfectly into this category
The British school continues to churn out actors of the highest calibre. Emma Corrin and David Dawson (Marion and Patrick as youngsters), Linus Roache, Gina McKee and Rupert Everett (Tom, Marion and Patrick seniors) give the film that extra edge needed to fill out Grandage’s good work. And what it lacks in direction is almost always covered up by the quality of the performers.
The only jarring note, although it seems like a joke of paradoxes given who we are talking about, is Harry Styles himself. His young Policeman has all the suitable characteristics: naive and passionate, but also false and hypocritical. Unfortunately, Styles lacks the tools to give the character due depth, which is a pity because the film would have benefited further. The critical social and political aspects with which the narrative is imbued are also weakened.
Here as in Don’t Worry Darling Styles is fortunate to be able to lean on talented colleagues who relieve him of too much responsibility. However, the centrality of his role means that his apparent shortcomings in the craft do not go unnoticed.
READ ALSO: Don’t Worry Darling
My Policeman (available Nov. 4, 2022, directly on Prime Video) is a somewhat interrupted film, lacking little in the way of a fulfilment that would undoubtedly have made it even more intriguing.