My Policeman, Harry Styles' new movie, is a compelling portrayal of loss, love and regret.

There's a quiet truth to Prime Video's new Harry Styles-helmed film My Policeman. 

A quiet truth that speaks volumes about love, loss, regret and shame. But there's also a sprinkle of hope. 

My Policeman is a 2022 American romantic drama based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts. The novel was inspired by the famous love triangle between novelist EM Forster, Forster’s policeman lover Bob Buckingham and Bob’s wife, May. 

Set in 1950s Britain, the film follows the story of three young people, policeman Tom (Harry Styles), school teacher Marion (Emma Corrin), and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson), as they become entangled in a love triangle. 

Watch the trailer for Prime Video's My Policeman. Story continues below.

Tom, a young police constable from a working class background who has career aspirations, is told by his superiors that unmarried men find it hard to advance through the ranks. When he meets well-educated Marion on a beach, they instantly have a connection. He teaches her to swim, and she teaches him about literature and art. As their relationship deepens, Tom meets Patrick, who introduces him to a love he thought he could never have. 

It's a time when homosexuality is illegal, so Patrick and Tom explore each other in the cover of darkness, snatching kisses in laneways and brushing each other's hands in crowded theatres. 

Their love is forbidden, and even more so because Tom is engaged to be married to Marion, who begins to have suspicions about their new friend Patrick.

The film also flashes forward to the 1990s, where Tom (played by Rupert Everett) and Marion (Gina McKee) are married, and Patrick (Linus Roache) comes to live with them after suffering a stroke. Patrick is unable to communicate and Marion has volunteered to care for him through a community program. 

Image: Prime Video. 

At first, Tom refuses to acknowledge Patrick, and Marion's motivations for bringing him into their seaside cottage are unclear. But as the movie progresses, we learn the couple have been living under the shadow of shame, guilt and regret throughout their 40-year marriage. And Marion sees this as an opportunity to finally put things right. 

The story is told through Marion's eyes, who has discovered Patrick's journal and is reading the passages he wrote some 40 years ago about his 'policeman' and their forbidden love. 

This is Styles' second acting gig and his co-star Linus Roache, who plays the older version of Tom, says Styles brings a "wonderful honesty" to the role. 

“I love Harry! What he has is a wonderful honesty to him,” Roache told NME at the BFI London Film Festival. “He’s very present and interested and intrigued, he has a sense of wonder in him, so I think it’s beautiful what he did.” 

"In a way, when I watched some of his scenes, I thought well, I don’t need to imitate him," he said. "I just need to be in my own honesty and simplicity."

“The Tom I play has spent 40 years repressed, with his heart closed and maybe there’s a glimmer of hope at the end. There’s always a chance.”

Speaking to GQ UK, director Michael Grandage, said it was a unique experience filming a movie with one of the biggest pop stars in the world. 

"We did a lot of pre-planning to disguise the name of the film, to do all sorts of things to [prevent fans from turning up],” he said. “Suddenly, we realised there was a lot of interest at the end of the canals. We could hear all sorts of screaming going on. But we actually managed to have a pretty successful shoot." 

“I'll say this about Harry's fans: they are phenomenally respectful people. If a fan is a mirror of the person they are following, that doesn't surprise me.”

Image: Prime Video. 

Grandage told the publication the first thing he noticed about Styles was how prepared he was to play the role. He really wanted it.

“So I took a meeting in my office in London,” he recalled to GQ UK. “The person who arrived was incredibly informed: he'd not just read the novel, at least once, he'd read the screenplay many times. I was sitting opposite somebody who was making a case for why they wanted to play Tom Burgess. I didn't have to sell it."

Both of these things combined, mean Styles is probably the perfect person to tell this story to a new generation who might not be aware of the often life-threatening challenges the LGBTQ+ community faced in the past.

While My Policeman is a love story, and a story about a complicated relationship between three people, it's also a quiet meditation on the impact anti-gay laws had on generations of men and women.

It's a study of how shame and guilt follows you throughout your life and how it's never too late to put things right. Or to finally love the person you're supposed to. 

My Policeman is now streaming on Prime Video. Start your 30 day free trial today.

Feature Image: Prime Video. 

Our Prime Time series collects Mamamia’s favourite discoveries on Prime Video. For more recommendations visit our Prime Time hub.

Love watching TV and movies? Take our survey now to go in the running to win a $50 gift voucher.