Rating: 6/10
As of this past weekend, Harry Styles’ acting career moved from theater screening to home streaming with a romantic, angst-filled story about the forbidden love of two gay men, set in the 1950s in Brighton, England. Based on Bethan Robert’s 2012 novel, “My Policeman” is a 114-minute film filled with art, love and betrayal, and was made available on Amazon Prime on Nov. 4.
“My Policeman” is Styles’ second film of the year, third in his career, and it seems he has not used the experience to gather better-acting skills. Styles attempts to play a closeted policeman named Tom, who is scared enough by the idea of living life alone that he creates a triangle of betrayal between his wife and his lover.
While the pop star was able to deliver love-filled lines to his lover, Patrick, played by David Dawson, it felt that nearly every word he uttered landed flatly. Yet, throughout the film, Tom exudes physical attraction, which might lead audience members to believe that it could be the only logical reason for hiring Styles on such an emotional representation of queer relationships. The Cheshire drawl mixed with his monotone voice shows that Styles’ has a better time expressing himself through his music than his acting.
Styles’ co-stars were also not nearly as award-winning as anticipated from the buzz the film created over the months. Emma Corrin, known for her role in the Netflix series “The Crown,” gave a mediocre performance of Marion; the jealous, homophobic wife determined to keep her husband Tom to herself. The lack of character development throughout the film, until the last few minutes where the aged female character decides to leave her marriage out of guilt, made the British queer love story seem surface-leveled and not nearly as impactful as some readers say the novel portrays.
With the help of Dawson, seen before in the Netflix series “Peaky Blinders,” the film felt redeemed by the emotional monologues delivered in Patrick’s journal entries of his policeman. It felt that Dawson’s portrayal of the lonely artist, Patrick, was the only element that truly showed the heartbreaking hardships that the queer community endured during the 1950s.
The triangle of the three stars provided a watch that indulges in the perspective of both the lover and the wife in this relationship and the pain they commonly share at the hands of their policeman. While the plot evokes a nuanced tension between the tragic love triangle and Marion’s constant homophobia, the pain of a cheated-on wife is legitimate.
Just like the performances of the leading actors, the music that framed the scenes was just as underwhelming. Steven Price, known for his work on “Gravity,” painted the emotional, passionately tense story between the three in a soft, delicate tone. It could easily be forgotten throughout the watch up until the credits roll and the viewers are left with the ending scene.
“My Policeman” was a heartfelt queer romance that lacked in performances but succeeded in composition. It provided an experience for viewers to see the different angles of love.