My Policeman

Yesterday afternoon I decided to cross another movie off my very long list by seeing My Policeman.  I was quite moved by this heartbreaking story about the consequences of being forced to live a lie.  In the present, Patrick Hazlewood (Rupert Everett) suffers a debilitating stroke and goes to convalesce with his estranged friends Marion and Tom Burgess (Gina McKee and Linus Roache, respectively).  They seem to have a lukewarm marriage and Tom bitterly resents Patrick's presence, refusing to see or speak to him.  The timeline then shifts to 1957 when Tom (Harry Styles), a policeman from a working class background, begins seeing a sophisticated schoolteacher named Marion (Emma Corrin) and starts trying to improve himself to impress her.  When Tom meets a museum curator named Patrick (David Dawson), the three of them are soon spending all of their time together because Patrick and Marion have a lot in common. However, it turns out that it is Tom who Patrick loves and they begin a secret affair.  Tom is conflicted about their relationship because he is a policeman and homosexuality is illegal in Britain so he decides to marry Marion for protection while continuing to see Patrick.  Marion eventually learns the truth and takes drastic steps to keep Patrick out of their lives.  Back in the present, Marion, Tom, and Patrick must finally reconcile their past actions in order to live more authentically.  The story is so tragic (and compelling) because all three characters are faced with an impossible situation due to the repressive era in which they live and there were several moments that brought tears to my eyes.  I loved the cast, including Styles who has been much maligned for his acting.  I thought he was fine in Don't Worry Darling but I think he is much better in this role because he is incredibly charismatic and has so much chemistry with both Dawson and Corrin.  They also give really solid performances and there is a particular scene where Corrin is absolutely devastating without even saying a word.  McKee, Roache, and Everett do a great job as the older versions of these characters but I wish that they had more to do because I wanted to know more about them.  I loved the aesthetic of this movie because everything, including the setting along the coast, the production design, and the costumes, looks gorgeous (I love period movies).  This is another story about a forbidden same-sex relationship like we have seen many times before but it is an important one and is definitely worth watching, especially when it streams on Prime Video starting Nov. 4.