*Spoiler Alert*
âThis love is all consuming. I pity people who donât know what it feels like to be this in loveâ â Patrick Hazelwood
After his controversial appearance in Olivia Wildeâs Donât Worry Darling, Harry Styles takes on a new role in Michael Grandageâs My Policeman. The film explores the horrifying prejudice against homosexuals in 1950s post-war Britain. Grandageâs adaptation of Bethan Robertâs novel homes in on the heart-wrenching closeted homosexual relationship between Patrick Hazelwood (David Dawson & Rupert Everett) and Tom Burgess (Harry Styles & Linus Roache). At a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence, Grandage illuminates a world of repression, guilt, and shame. Vanity Fair sums up perfectly that it is âa powerful story of forbidden love, regret, and living as your true selfâ.
A SYNOPSIS
The story begins in the present day, where Marion Taylor (Emma Corrin & Gina McKee), driven by guilt, takes on the care of Patrick as part of a volunteering programme. After she brings him into the home, Tom is angered by his presence. However, it is unknown at this point in the film what their relationship is to each other, or why they feel so hurt in one another’s company. Flash forward 40 years, the film begins to unfold the love story between the young Tom Burgess and Marion Taylor, who eventually decide to marry. The young couple quickly turn into a trio, when Patrick Hazelwood, a museum curator, adds himself to their companionship. The two men, however, met before Marion was in the picture, when Patrick was a witness for one of Tomâs police cases. Their connection is undeniable from the moment they lay eyes on each other.
The love story between Marion and Tom gets messy when Patrick and Tom find love for each other. However, during a time of extreme homosexual prejudice and fear of the law, their relationship is bound by secrecy and shame. The trio starts to crumble when Marion begins to suspect that Patrick is gay, labelling him as a âsexual pervertâ. With Tomâs attempt to gaslight Marion into thinking he is nothing of the sort, the tension begins to rise. Adding fuel to the fire, Patrick invites Tom on a trip to Venice, where he believes they can be free to love each other without any guilt or shame attached. However, after Marion receives a postcard from Tom, she burns it. Fuelled by homophobia and jealousy, she sends an anonymous letter to the police claiming that Patrick is a homosexual. Consequentially, Patrick ends up in prison where he is brutally beat by other inmates.
Flashforward 40 years, Marionâs heavy guilty conscience and desire for freedom pushes her to confess that she was the one who reported Patrick to the police. The film ends with Marion leaving Tom so that she could explore the world as a free woman, without the burden of guilt, and so that she could reunite Tom and Patrick, who could have a relationship built on the foundations of love, unattached to shame.
HARRY STYLES ON PLAYING THE ROLE OF TOM BURGESS
Harry Styles is a well-known heart throb, labelled by Rolling Stone as âthe worldâs most wanted manâ. However, with dating Olivia Wilde, and his feminine fashion, he has unfairly, and intrusively, been questioned on his sexuality throughout his fame. Therefore, playing a queer character in a film was bound to get people talking. With this taking a toll on his personal life, he decided to make his statement on sexuality in an issue of Better Homes & Gardens.After facing scrutiny about his sexuality around the time of Fine Line, he tells them that âIâve been really open about it with my friends, but thatâs my personal experience; itâs mineâ. Adding that, âthe whole point of where we should be heading, which is toward accepting everybody and being more open, is that it doesnât matter, and itâs about not having to label everything, not having to clarify what boxes youâre checkingâ. His message about not having labels and having an experience that is personal to you, makes his role of Tom Burgess in My Policeman even more powerful.
Director Michael Grandage says that âthe whole point of Tom is that he is a character who is confusedâ, adding that âthe complexity of it is something that whoever was going to play [âŠ] Tom needed to somehow understand and absorbâ. Therefore, he believed Harry Styles would come into this role well. Styleâs co-star Linus Roache, who plays older Tom, says that he brought âwonderful honestyâ to My Policeman. Styles himself comments that âfor me, the reason why the story is so devastating is that [âŠ] the story is about wasted timeâ, adding that one of things he thinks matters is that âwhatever kind of life youâve lived â at the end when you think back on time with people you loveâ. His discussion on freedom to love who you want is one of importance, and his character Tom Burgess highlights this in the film.
However, since the film, Styles has been accused of queerbaiting. This is broadly defined as when âa celebrity or public figure capitalizes on the suspicion that they may be romantically involved with another same-sex person for the sake of publicity, promotion or a capitalistic gainâ. However, he makes a statement claiming that he has his own journey with figuring out sexuality, and that âthis is a gay story about these guys being gay [âŠ] itâs about love and about wasted time to meâ.  Arguably, by suggesting that he is âqueerbaitingâ, we are pushing heterosexual label on to him just because he hasnât officially labelled himself under the LGBTQ umbrella. This means that the role of Tom Burgess in My Policeman would require an actor to come out publicly for them to embrace this queerness. That is a problematic issue in itself. We have seen the effects of queerbaiting accusations after a recent incident happened with Kit Conner. Conner plays a gay character, Nick Nelson, in the Netflix series Heartstopper. He ended up feeling forced to come out as bisexual on twitter after relentlessly being asked about his sexuality because of the queerbaiting accusations. So, is Harry Styles queerbaiting, or is accusing him of queerbaiting problematic in itself?
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Overall, I really enjoyed the film. I thought it depicted post-war Britain in an accurate way, emphasising how corrupt its âtraditionalâ values were. It also showed not only how difficult it was to be gay in the fifties because of the extreme prejudice, but how genuinely terrifying it was if anyone found out because it was a literal crime. Unlike Donât Worry Darling, which got major criticism for Styleâs acting, I found he portrayed the character of Tom very well. I would definitely recommend My Policeman, which can be easily accessed on Amazon Prime Video.
So, what are your thoughts?