*This article contains spoilers. *
The overall story in “My Policeman” was captivating, bringing to life real problems from the 1950s that can still be present today. In the movie, Harry Styles and Emma Corren play a couple from England in the 50s where their relationship seems to be just as normal as anyone during that time. Tom, played by Harry Styles, becomes a policeman where he enjoys the life of helping his community while Marion, played by Emma Corrin, is a schoolteacher who loved to teach and take care of children. They then become close friends with Patrick, played by David Dawson, who is an art curator, and they spend a lot of time together doing activities like going to the theater and viewing art exhibitions. Close to the middle of the movie, you start to notice that there is more going on than shown at first. Patrick and Tom start a romantic relationship with one another while Tom is still in a relationship with Marion. They hide their secret relationship from everyone, until the lies catch up to them leading down a path that brings nobody happiness in the end. Some of the themes the movie showed that kept me engaged were the constant lying, cheating, betrayal, and suffering in silence. These themes could have brought a much more intense, emotional, and engaging story but were clouded by the way the director, Michael Grandage, decided to mostly focus on Tom, the policeman.
Even though the policeman is a critical person in the story, I felt as though he was not the most important person to focus on in the story. Tom was the one that tore everyone else apart, leaving them unhappy and unfulfilled in their own lives including his own. He was the one that hurt everyone because he was choosing to suffer in silence and not accept who he could’ve been. Yes, the policeman went through a lot of bad circumstances, but he did end up with what he thought he wanted so badly: the acceptance from society that Marion gave him. The difference between Tom and both of his lovers is that they both knew who they were, who and what they wanted from life. But the story itself could have given so much more than it was if the movie had provided more of Tom’s lovers’ perspectives. I also believe the focus on Tom’s perspective could have been a marketing strategy to win over more viewers by having Harry Styles as the main character. However, just because someone is famous outside of acting, doesn’t mean they should act.
Overall, I thought Harry Styles’ acting was boring, monotone and didn’t stir up any type of emotions towards his point of view of the story. I felt emotions towards the end of the movie where you can see the hurt and betrayal both Marion and Patrick feel after 40 years and how this has left them both with nothing. Both Emma and Daivd gave great performances. I even felt like David’s acting outshined Harry’s from the amount of emotion you could feel throughout the film. But for the most part, I enjoyed the movie as I am happy that more representation for issues like this are being shown on the big screen, I just wish it was told in the POV of someone who was deeply affected by the choices of other people’s selfishness.
My overall score of the film is 6/10.