This review originally ran on September 11, 2022, for the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
A love triangle plays out over decades in Michael Grandage’s “My Policeman,” based on the 2012 novel by Bethan Roberts, who was inspired by the 40-year relationship between English novelist E.M. Forster and policeman Bob Buckingham, as well Buckingham’s wife, May, who also became close with Forster. As described by Roberts in a 2012 essay in The Guardian, this quiet, proto-polyamorous situation was “a wonderful muddle,” which seemingly worked for all three participants in their own way.
The relationship at the center of “My Policeman,” isn’t so much wonderful as it is tragic. Instead of finding a happily unconventional comfort as Forster and the Buckinghams may have, the three individuals in “My Policeman” end up jealous, unsatisfied and oppressed, and the film explores the ways in which one might attempt to right decades of wrongs.
A love triangle plays out over decades in Michael Grandage’s “My Policeman,” based on the 2012 novel by Bethan Roberts, who was inspired by the 40-year relationship between English novelist E.M. Forster and policeman Bob Buckingham, as well Buckingham’s wife, May, who also became close with Forster. As described by Roberts in a 2012 essay in The Guardian, this quiet, proto-polyamorous situation was “a wonderful muddle,” which seemingly worked for all three participants in their own way.
The relationship at the center of “My Policeman,” isn’t so much wonderful as it is tragic. Instead of finding a happily unconventional comfort as Forster and the Buckinghams may have, the three individuals in “My Policeman” end up jealous, unsatisfied and oppressed, and the film explores the ways in which one might attempt to right decades of wrongs.
- 11/4/2022
- by Katie Walsh
- The Wrap
Image Source: Everett Collection
Harry Styles has generated quite the buzz in the entertainment world outside of his music in 2022. From starring in Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling" to his cameo as Starfox in Marvel's "Eternals," the "As It Was" singer is taking on more acting projects and growing his film résumé. In Styles's latest film, "My Policeman," he shares the screen with "The Crown"'s Emma Corrin and David Dawson.
The film is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts and centers on a complicated love triangle that spans decades, with the nature of the relationship dangerous to all involved.
Ahead of its theatrical release on Oct. 21, here's the story that inspired "My Policeman."
What Is "My Policeman" About?
In the 1950s, policeman Tom Burgess (Styles) meets schoolteacher Marion Taylor (Corrin). The two fall in love, eventually marry, and settle down in the beachside town of Brighton,...
Harry Styles has generated quite the buzz in the entertainment world outside of his music in 2022. From starring in Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling" to his cameo as Starfox in Marvel's "Eternals," the "As It Was" singer is taking on more acting projects and growing his film résumé. In Styles's latest film, "My Policeman," he shares the screen with "The Crown"'s Emma Corrin and David Dawson.
The film is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts and centers on a complicated love triangle that spans decades, with the nature of the relationship dangerous to all involved.
Ahead of its theatrical release on Oct. 21, here's the story that inspired "My Policeman."
What Is "My Policeman" About?
In the 1950s, policeman Tom Burgess (Styles) meets schoolteacher Marion Taylor (Corrin). The two fall in love, eventually marry, and settle down in the beachside town of Brighton,...
- 10/20/2022
- by Alicia Geigel
- Popsugar.com
Michael Grandage’s adaptation of a novel inspired by Forster’s famous ménage à trois conjours a mood of British postwar repression and guilt
Michael Grandage’s new film has been coolly received by some, but I found it an interestingly fragile and Rattiganesque melodrama of repression and regret. It is set on a gloomy English seafront and intercuts between the buttoned-up 1950s and the late 1990s. As an earnestly intended drama I can imagine it being performed on stage at a weekday matinee, the climactic speeches echoing wanly around the auditorium. But in its contrived way, it conjures a very English sort of shame.
Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner has adapted the novel by Bethan Roberts, itself inspired by the famous ménage between novelist Em Forster, Forster’s policeman lover Bob Buckingham and Bob’s wife, May. Linus Roache and Gina McKee play ageing married couple Tom and Marion, respectively a...
Michael Grandage’s new film has been coolly received by some, but I found it an interestingly fragile and Rattiganesque melodrama of repression and regret. It is set on a gloomy English seafront and intercuts between the buttoned-up 1950s and the late 1990s. As an earnestly intended drama I can imagine it being performed on stage at a weekday matinee, the climactic speeches echoing wanly around the auditorium. But in its contrived way, it conjures a very English sort of shame.
Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner has adapted the novel by Bethan Roberts, itself inspired by the famous ménage between novelist Em Forster, Forster’s policeman lover Bob Buckingham and Bob’s wife, May. Linus Roache and Gina McKee play ageing married couple Tom and Marion, respectively a...
- 10/20/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
On a break from his Madison Square Garden residency, and shortly after the Don’t Worry Darling Venice Film Festival world premiere, Harry Styles hit Toronto as his Amazon Studios Prime Video feature drama My Policeman made its world premiere to a great standing ovation Sunday at the Princess of Wales Theatre.
And there was no meme social-media spitting, or backstage drama; just all good vibes for My Policeman cast and director Michael Grandage. First stop was the Princess of Wales, where Emma Corin, David Dawson, Linus Roache, Styles and the filmmaker were among those taking the stage. Then they were whisked a few blocks away to the Fairmont Hotel to pick up their TIFF Tribute award for Best Performance (for the entire cast; see their acceptance speech below). Then they headed back for a Q&a at the Princess of Wales. And let’s not forget the press conference earlier in the day.
And there was no meme social-media spitting, or backstage drama; just all good vibes for My Policeman cast and director Michael Grandage. First stop was the Princess of Wales, where Emma Corin, David Dawson, Linus Roache, Styles and the filmmaker were among those taking the stage. Then they were whisked a few blocks away to the Fairmont Hotel to pick up their TIFF Tribute award for Best Performance (for the entire cast; see their acceptance speech below). Then they headed back for a Q&a at the Princess of Wales. And let’s not forget the press conference earlier in the day.
- 9/12/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro and Scott Shilstone
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
An involuntary snort of laughter escaped me just as the illicit gay union at the heart of My Policeman hit its most torrid peak. Harry Styles as Tom Burgess, the 1950s British copper who gives the film its title, has snuck off for a few days’ romantic idyll in Venice with his secret lover, urbane museum curator Patrick Hazelwood, played by David Dawson like he’s just stepped out of Brideshead Revisited. Patrick is draped across a hotel bed in what appears to be post-coital bliss, dreamily contemplating the sculptural curves of Tom’s buttocks as he stands smoking naked at the window. In precisely that moment, the choir singing Vivaldi’s “Gloria” explodes in collective euphoria.
It would be nice to think this was some music supervisor’s idea of, ahem, a cheeky joke, to direct a hymn of glorious praise at...
An involuntary snort of laughter escaped me just as the illicit gay union at the heart of My Policeman hit its most torrid peak. Harry Styles as Tom Burgess, the 1950s British copper who gives the film its title, has snuck off for a few days’ romantic idyll in Venice with his secret lover, urbane museum curator Patrick Hazelwood, played by David Dawson like he’s just stepped out of Brideshead Revisited. Patrick is draped across a hotel bed in what appears to be post-coital bliss, dreamily contemplating the sculptural curves of Tom’s buttocks as he stands smoking naked at the window. In precisely that moment, the choir singing Vivaldi’s “Gloria” explodes in collective euphoria.
It would be nice to think this was some music supervisor’s idea of, ahem, a cheeky joke, to direct a hymn of glorious praise at...
- 9/12/2022
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
My Policeman, which had its world premiere today at the Toronto Film Festival, has its roots in a novel by Bethan Roberts which was actually based on a complicated love relationship between famed novelist E.M. Forster; his male lover of 40 years, a policeman named Bob Buckingham; and Buckingham’s wife May Hockey, who slowly came to realize her husband had a long-standing affair with Forster, but even after he had suffered a series of strokes took care of the author in his later life so deep was their friendship. Roberts changed the names and fictionalized it all for her book, which is now the basis of Ron Nyswaner’s (Philadelphia) screenplay that explores the love triangle of three freewheeling friends in 1957 who each was hobbled by the mores of the time, repressing rather than expressing their own sexuality, even as the...
- 9/12/2022
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
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