Mark Reviews Movies: MY POLICEMAN

My Policeman, Amazon Studios

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 20, 2022

Stories set in two different eras and seen from a couple of perspectives reveal a pretty stilted romantic triangle in My Policeman. In the past, there's a tale of passions so hidden that they're barely communicated, and in a more contemporary period, the participants of that decades-old story are left to live with regret and resentment that are barely felt. There's subdued, and then, there's the sleepy way these characters seem to walk through a story that should probably hit them—and us—a lot harder.

Much of Ron Nyswaner's screenplay, based on Bethan Roberts' 2012 novel, presents this tale as a mystery, which is an unfortunate misstep that keeps much of emotional undercurrent and many details of character at bay. We first meet the doomed trio of lovers in the present day—or close enough to it for a lot of social changes to have occurred in between the timelines. They're Marion (Gina McKee) and Tom (Linus Roache), who have been married with unknown degrees of success and contentment for several decades, as well as a visitor into their home.

He's Patrick (Rupert Everett), an old friend who recently suffered a stroke. He also is probably more and/or worse than a friend, based on the cold reception he receives from the couple, despite Marion's invitation and offer to help. Because of the mysterious nature of the plot and these relationships, both of which unfold in a series of flashbacks, it's meant to be a surprise as to what these relationships are, what they were, and what caused the change in the first place.

In practice, it leaves Tom to wander in a haunted manner around the house and by the beach for most of the movie, while Patrick is left to look miserable and angry. After a while of not knowing why, it becomes far too easy to stop caring about the reason.

The flashbacks tell a much different story—well, two, actually—in a way that gives a lot more information but still comes across as holding back on far too much. In the late 1950s in seaside Brighton, a younger Marion (played by Emma Corrin) is reacquainted with a younger Tom (played by Harry Styles), the brother of a friend who has returned from military service and recently got a job as a local police officer. She's smitten with him, and after a bit, Tom starts asking her out on outings or dates, since it's difficult to determine based on how reserved he is.

One of their first times alone together is at a local museum, where a younger Patrick (played by David Dawson) has invited Tom to take a private tour, and since Marion is a school teacher who appreciates such things and has been teaching him about books and art, Tom thinks she would like to join him. She does, of course, and soon enough, Patrick, whom Marion assumes is quite lonely and friendless, starts inviting them to various cultural engagements. Indeed, it almost seems as if Marion might prefer Patrick's engaging and engaged company over Tom's quiet attitude and ambiguous feelings toward her.

Nyswaner and director Michael Grandage are clearly pushing our expectations in one direction, since the present-day Marion seems comfortable but resentful of the contemporary Patrick, while Tom of the future seems to go out of his way to avoid his old friend. None of it, of course, is as it seems at first.

There's a switch in perspective, seeing events between the trio and before all three of them even meet (although two of them do), from the younger Marion to the younger Patrick. This does not come as much of a surprise, although the movie seems to go out of its way to keep it one, but the real lovers here aren't Marion and Tom or Patrick. They're Tom, who struggles with being gay and trying to hide it from everyone including himself, and Patrick, who only struggles to keep his sexuality hidden from those who would—according to laws of the United Kingdom at the time—put him in prison.

Some passion comes through with this change, if only on a physical level. The underlying issues of the narrative still remain, though, as the secret continues to be hidden, meaning that the central romance never moves past the physical or the fear of being discovered, and everything slowly but steadily arrives at a tragic end. Despite the newfound focus on Patrick, the story only seems to care about developing and understanding Marion.

Meanwhile, Tom remains at an arm's length for the entirety of the movie. Part of that comes from Styles' performance, which is fine as a seemingly vacant figure of dual affection but remains in that register throughout—even in moments of desire and distress. Most of it, though, is that the screenplay only sees him in vague and chilly terms (until one moment in the third act, which simply cannot do all the psychological and emotional lifting it needs to do in order to compensate). Indeed, "vague" and chilly" serve as fine descriptors for My Policeman in general.

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