My Policeman

Not reading the book, being interested by music of Harry Stiles and admiring Rupert Everett, it is just easy to not ignore this movie.

The expectation - maybe influenced by Firebird by Peeter Rabane. Sure, different context but same spider webb of intolerance .

The film is just gifted. Good acting, fair story, seductive images.

But you can not feel the tension , emotions and the deepness of the inner fights of characters.

So, you have one verdict - a beautiful film. But the connections are too fragile and you feel entire story as exterior one .

But it works.

And the delicate bitterness remains a precious gift from Michael Grandage.

My Policeman is the story of a love triangle between two men and a woman, and a forbidden love between the two men in 1957 in Britain. There are two sets of actors who play the older and younger versions of the characters. They were all good, but I particulary liked the excellent young cast. Young Tom, (Harry Styles), is a hunky, rookie policeman; young Marion, (Emma Corrin), is a teacher; young Patrick, (David Dawson), Tom's lover, is a museum curator. The camera loves certain people; Harry Styles is one of those people. He played Tom with a disarming innocence.

The story time jumps between 1999 - 2000, when the Tom and Marion are retired and Marion takes Patrick in to help him heal after he had a stroke, and 1957 - 1958 when the three meet. In 1999, Tom does not want Patrick in his house and refuses contact with him. Much of the story is relayed through flashbacks as Marion reads Patrick's diary. It's disturbing to watch the judgment and violence that gay men had to endure in 1950s America. The relationships are well developed, nuanced, and complex. I liked the film.

Laid-back, understated, emotionally honest look at forbidden love in 1950s Britain and what it does to three people who love each other to varying extents, with a judicious, unshowy screenplay by Ron Nyswaner ("Philadelphia") and tender direction by Michael Grandage. It makes Brighton look gorgeous, and it peers into the lives of teacher Marion, policeman Tom, and museum curator Patrick with an appealing non-judgmentalism. You can pick at it: Why does the latter-day Tom treat Patrick like that, and how much does Marion know and when does she know it, and why don't we find out more about Marion's BFF, and the 1999 sequences aren't as rooted in 1999 as the 1957 sequences are in 1957. I still don't see what everyone sees in Harry Styles, it's a timid performance that could use more swagger. But the rest of the cast is excellent, and the fadeout had everyone around me weeping.

Harry Styles helped me propose to my girlfriend in October of 2014, so its hard for me not to be partial to him. Went into this movie having no idea what it was about and I'm glad. I will say that although Styles' acting skills have improved greatly, he was still outshined by his cast mates. There were times where his emotions came across as disingenuous and flat, but also times where I could tell that he's been working on his chops. Now, not knowing what I was going into, I must say I was quite surprised at some of the moments in this movie. There were a couple of things I wish they had conveyed better, such as the time between the 50s and 90s. I felt like there was big gap missing and I was left wondering what happened or how they lived their lives out between those years. I would recommend this to most of my friends, although I know some would cringe at the "love making" scenes. I, personally, was not put off by this and found it quite romantic at times, although Patrick did come across as pushy and off putting many times, almost creep like. In the end, I really enjoyed the film and look forward to seeing many more from Harry Styles. He's only going to improve.

I can hardly believe the 6.8 rating on here for this wonderful life long romance journey. The screenplay is brilliant - but perhaps some people marked it down because in fact its not just fiction.

Similar stories have continued for generations. The story of forbidden love and conformity collide together in this surprising piece of excellent work.

The (surprising) cast (young and older) were all excellent in this forbidden love triangle. This story is not make believe; whilst I am not saying the storyline is common - I am saying its not unusual for those times. Perhaps less so these days.

The low score on here surprises me - considering much higher scores are given to series/films that are complete codswallop.

Give it a go - but its not for the bigoted or squeamish.

SPOILER ALERT: there are no gun chases/Shoot outs not car chases.