My Policeman (2022)

When I was young most queer movies were like My Policeman, tragic tales of the trauma of the closet, often ending in loss with only a few reaching a conclusion with some long awaited peace, but never the happily ever after. It seemed like there was a time when the only way we knew how to tell stories of queerness in media was through tragedy, the sufferings of generations of queer people punished for being who they are. 

Today we have all sorts of stories featuring gay, lesbian, and bisexual characters; there are romances, adventures, comedies, and dramas. But there was a time, perhaps before all gay stories shifted to being about dying of AIDS, when films like My Policeman were everywhere. It took me back to a time when Hollywood didn't know how to offer me hope, and all narratives of men who loved men foretold misfortune, like the opening chorus of Romeo and Juliet.

Like many of those films, My Policeman is a beautifully filmed story with quite poignant moments of love, betrayal, and redemption. While much of the attention has been given to Styles, Corrin and the elder cast are all truly powerful in their roles. The film captures a very tender view of a difficult time that is often quite touching to watch. There is merit to these stories of woe. Generations of queer men did live lives of loss and denial and those stories are as valid as any other. But as a young man I wanted to see the happily-ever-after happen sometimes. As the writer E.M. Forster pointed out when he finally wrote his gay romance Maurice, he wanted a happy ending because we deserved that. 

However, one thing stood out for me while watching My Policeman and I struggled with with it as the story unfolded. This is the story (written by a woman) of two queer men being in love when they truly couldn't, but all told through the point of view of a straight woman. The details of the narrative are all revealed through Marion's perspective, even the intimate moments are only depicted through her reading the diary of one of the men. This kept the story from being truly about them, kept us at arms length. It was like male-queerness as a device for a heterosexual woman's journey to self-discovery. And while there is something interesting in the journey of a woman whose life has been built around hiding her husband's queerness, struggling with her role in that, and perhaps addressing some of her own erasure in enduring that, that means it isn't about men falling in love, but about what that does to a straight woman. Fair enough. But this is a heterosexual story that places the homosexual on the periphery. 

Still, despite my misgivings of the narrative point, I feel the film is a better made film than many are giving it credit for. It is quite sensitive and moving and the pairs of actors playing Tom and Patrick create a believable passion between them. Sometimes I felt the later day motivations seemed overly dramatic, and perhaps a little to easily wrapped up at the end. But I still felt the emotions felt honest.

In the end My Policeman was a bit of a mixed bag for me, nostalgic a bit and it sparked something in seeing the romance blossom honestly between the two men, but also a bit focused on the heterosexual gaze and pushing the queerer elements to the sidelines. 

My Policeman

Starring: Harry Styles, Linus Roache, Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, David Dawson, Rupert Everett, Kadiff Kirwan

Director: Michael Grandage

Writer: Ron Nyswaner