My Policeman

First, how excellent to have a film about queerness with four of the major stars being queer (maybe three, I'm unclear on the Harry Syles situation), and a gay director, Michael Grandage. For whatever reason, I honestly did not think I would be moved by this movie. My impression from the trailers was that it would be surface-level queer with no real exploration, sex, or romance. I am pleased to report that I was incorrect. This is more than one love story, it's at least three. It bounces between 1957 and 1999, joy and sadness, romance and hatred, passion and relative apathy, white lies and much bigger lies.

The titular "My" here is not one person. The first love story is between the policeman in question, Tom (Styles) and his wife-to-be, Marion (Emma Corrin, goddess Diana of The Crown), who is the first My of the story. She's a shy school teacher, all pleated skirts and no makeup. He's a terribly handsome (come on, you know it) young "copper" in Brighton, the small coastal Sussex town where this all takes place. David Dawson, who I knew only from Ripper Street (which also gave us Josh O'Connor of The Crown fame; he’s in some really fabulous heart-rending movies, ask me later) is the second My, and what a devastating and understated My he is. To be clear, this film is in part a tragedy, but it is not full of death. No one in this movie dies for being queer, please know that going in. There is violence, all committed by cops (surprise!) and homophobic pricks (not a great word choice, I know). Dawson is Patrick, the museum tour guide who forms a friendship with the married couple. They go on picnics together, they go to the opera, they study JMW Turner’s paintings, and Tom exchanges furtive glances with his wife and with Patrick. And we’re off. 

Tom moves swiftly from being a cop with the power to arrest men caught in homosexual acts or accused of the same, to being a civilian softly and unthinkingly touching the neck of his friend, to being in love with that friend. Marion is at least partially aware of some sort of relationship between the two men, made all the more difficult because she loves them both, in wildly different ways, but she loves them. This is not a polyamory story, but it isn’t not one, though not in the way we tend to think of those. 

The film begins in 1999 and we see the fate of all three characters, specifically that they are sharing a home, though not quite willingly.  I won't give away anything else, but the actors are Linus Roache (older Tom, also very handsome, from Law and Order), Gina McKee (older Marion, still frumpy, from Croupier), and Rupert Everett (older Patrick, a bit beaten down, from My Best Friend’s Wedding). 

Whether the film gets the older and younger versions of the characters to “match” in their behavior is up for debate. People change, of course, but the expectation that we have for movie characters to retain every bit of their younger selves as they age is silly, that is simply not the way of things. Harry Styles’ performance as Tom is that of a young and confused sweet man, unintentionally hurtful to his lovers. Linus Roache’s Tom is hardened, mainly interested in taking his dog for long walks on the rocky beach and not discussing the past. 

I’m so glad that Dawson is getting his due and I hope that this will be his ticket the way that The Crown was for Corrin. Harry Styles doesn’t need a ticket, he’s had his for years, but it’s always exciting to see a multi-hyphenate prove people wrong, which I believe he has done here.