My Cop Review: Not Even Harry Styles Can Fix This Boring Love Story

In multiple scenes my policeman, written by Michael Grandage, available November 4 on Prime Video, love and art intersect in a vision of the sublime. They do this when, in the early episodes, Marion (Gina McKee) remembers how Patrick (Rupert Everett) taught her to look for “beauty”. Her and, of course, her husband Tom (Linus Roach). In a peaceful old age, memories are forms of the ideal, at least that’s how the film says. Especially when the prospect of the past is tragic and difficult for the trinity of friends.

Together they travel through memory, which inevitably leads to the solution of a mystery that unites them indelibly. Scenario my policeman insists that what will be seen will be a powerful story meant for suffering. He does not immediately reveal what he is hiding, but makes it clear that the plot will tell an elegant version of the forbidden. It is also necessary to reconstruct the deep meaning of invisible spiritual battles.

But the plot, written by Ron Niswaner based on the novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts, does not correspond to its idea. And even more so, there is not enough content in it for the story to be anything more than a sweetened version of the usual secret love.

Much ado about nothing my policeman

At the same time, this is a cheat game. The three characters are simply adult versions of the real protagonists. The actors are trying to show some clues to what they are hiding. From the tension of guilt that gripped Marion, or from Tom’s despair. Nonetheless, there are so many problems in the plot to start your story that everything has the appearance of a plot confusion that is difficult to combine into an understandable thread.

What is clear is that the arrival of Patrick in the life of the couple marks a journey through unfinished and painful decisions. As if the past—in relative calm—was a sad reward for something much more overwhelming.

my policeman he insists so much on the tragedy that has already happened that when the argument begins to touch on his most difficult moments, he already loses interest. Moreover, the mystery that is supposed to be revealed is not as exciting and complex as the story announced over and over again.

The beginning of a story between chaos and tenderness

when at last my policeman As he begins to tell his story, Grandage’s direction seems cold and distant. So much so as to tarnish all the efforts of argument that previously showed the common thread that unites its three main characters. But the warmth and obvious raw feelings of the first episodes are lost in a bewildering shift of register.

It’s 1950 and the director seems to be trying to show the rigidity of the times with morality crystallized in prejudice with a chaotic point of view. Will the argument try to delve into the idea of ​​small incidents that eventually become major conflicts? About the inevitability of an impending emotional catastrophe? my policeman does not select any particular rhythm or tonetherefore he strives for the general.

Suddenly, the script jumps incoherently, showing a young Marion (played by Emma Corrin) falling in love with Tom (Harry Styles). Both are a couple with big differences. She has an educated and artistic spirit. He is a working class man. A police officer without much sensitivity, but who wants to see the world from Marion’s point of view.

my policemanbumpy road

Gradually, the narrative makes it clear that for Tom, understanding the woman he loves is of paramount interest. Also, you cannot do it alone. In the end, both turn to Patrick (David Dawson), an art critic whom Tom met almost by accident. What is analyzed in the book as an inevitable thread of painful circumstances, in my policeman this is a random event. It seems very important for history to show that love is a big accident. Unpredictable, like a natural phenomenon.

Especially when the movie contradicts itself and reveals that Tom and Patrick actually have a secret relationship. Sexy, so stunning—or so the script insists—as to make Marion’s deception inevitable. my policeman walks a difficult path through the perception of guilt, desire and lust without studying any topic. Much less without actors capable of expressing the many layers of this novel, doomed to pain.

In particular, Stiles can’t show his character’s emotional breakdown. Layers of suffering that the very fact of feeling love must overcome. But the acting record is so meager that Stiles more often than not seems more confused than stunned. weakness, which my policeman he tries to compensate, as far as possible, with a well-constructed production.

Photo: PARIZA TAGHIZADE © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

In the end, as always, love

It’s strange and embarrassing that the best roles in the film were played by old lovers who became old accomplices.Yes. Marion learns the love story – or rather, confirms her suspicions – and does so through the diary. A shared resource that would be functional and even melancholy if not used in such a chaotic way.

The plot never fully understands how Marion feels after discovering the love she witnessed on the periphery. Especially the true suffering of Tom and Patrick, doomed to loneliness and fear. Pale, superficial and eventually artificially emotional my policeman ends with a collection of commonplaces about love. In particular, one that has to go through insurmountable obstacles. An important flaw that ends up being the biggest weakness of the film as a whole.

---

See all issues Andorone of the best series star Warsalready available in Disney+

---