Editor’s note: This review contains spoilers.
After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, “My Policeman” has hit select theaters Oct. 21, giving audiences the opportunity to see an emotionally filled film. Set in the 1950s, “My Policeman” transports audiences to the city Brighton, in East Sussex England where the three main characters, Tom Burgess (Harry Styles/Linus Roache), Marion Taylor (Emma Corrin/Gina Mckee) and Patrick Hazelwood (David Dawson/ Rupert Everett), begin their complicated love triangle.
In a time where homosexuality is illegal, Burgess, who has just become a police officer, has fallen in love with museum curator, Hazelwood. Simultaneously he falls in love with Taylor. The movie takes audiences back in time to those first encounters while also showing the reality of where this complicated relationship has landed them.
It being Styles’ first lead role, it allowed him to explore his emotional limits and express pain and love in a touching way, unlike with his role in “Don’t Worry Darling.” His ability to share the screen with two solidified actors and maintain that level of acting is especially impressive in vulnerable scenes.
Styles and Dawson share great on-screen chemistry and allow viewers to feel the ache of hiding that affection for one another. While Corrin’s character is portrayed as a façade to the secret love affair, her ability to show that deception, guilt and heartbreak really strikes an emotional chord.
The movie is emotionally and heartbreakingly beautiful, especially when it comes to the ending scene. We see the older versions of Tom and Patrick finally reunite and love each other openly. However, it is at the cost of Taylor, who confesses to Tom she felt as though it was her fault Tom could never be happy and she herself never got to experience true love.
Throughout the movie the lead actors present these emotions with ease, while helped greatly from the cinematography. With the light colors and soft locations, the knowledge that this story ends in heartbreak and is portrayed beautifully in each scene.
In all, I rate it an 8 out of 10 for it is wonderful storytelling by each actor, the cinematography and the soundtrack for the film added something to the overall emotion.
My Policeman hit select theaters Oct. 21, . If you would like to see it here in El Paso, Tinseltown is the only theatre to offer showings, it will also be premiering on Amazon Prime Video Nov. 4.
Itzel Giron is the multimedia editor and can be reached at [email protected]; @by.itzel.giron on Instagram; @itzel_anahi_16 on Twitter.
