My Policeman has been described by its own cast as a movie about ‘wasted time’.
It tells the story of a policeman who pursues a romance with a museum curator at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Diary entries discovered 40 years later reflect on their secret relationship after policeman Tom Burgess spent four decades married to Marion Taylor, unable to stay with his true love, Patrick Hazlewood, due to the law.
He ‘wasted’ such a large portion of his life after settling to protect his safety, despite knowing he would always be unfulfilled.
And while the story is handled with real care and compassion, I can’t help but ask: is it one we really need to be telling?
Starring Harry Styles as Tom, the flick has, naturally, received a great deal of press. Styles stars opposite David Dawson as Patrick, and The Crown’s Emma Corrin as on-screen wife Marion.
Directed by Michael Grandage and based on the book by Bethan Roberts, the film really tugs at the heartstrings. It switches back and forth between the 1950s and the 1990s, when an older Patrick goes to stay with still-married Tom and Marion after a stroke – reminiscing over what could have been.
But despite powerful performances, from Dawson in particular, it left a sinking feeling in my stomach as I pondered the question: how many more queer movies about ‘wasted time’ do we need?
My Policeman is far from the first historical LGBTQ+ project with an emotional forbidden romance trope, and I doubt it’ll be the last. Each instance only leaves me feeling deflated at how so much of queer media centres around misery and suffering, rather than joy and celebration.
Brokeback Mountain, Maurice, Carol, Disobedience, Call Me by Your Name, Vita and Virginia, Summerland, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Holding the Man, Ammonite, Firebird… Bored yet? Well, that’s how it feels to turn on an LGBTQ+ film only for it to focus on pain, lost time, tortured secret keeping and repressed clandestine romances.
There’s no denying that My Policeman is tender – it’s loving, and it’s warm, but it’s equally as devastating. It’s fair to say that creators handled the very real story of countless queer people with sensitivity and kindness.
