Honestly after “Don’t Worry Darling”’s disappointment I was kinda intrigued to see if Harry Styles would be better in this movie than in “Don’t Worry Darling”. And boy was he great!
This movie was another highly anticipated one for me ever since I saw its trailers and featurettes sometime back in September, this year!
This Amazon Prime Video movie starrs Harry Styles, Linus Roache (“The Blacklist”), Rupert Everett (“Sherlock Holmes” the series)), David Dawson (“All The Old Knives”), Kadiff Kirwan (“Black Mirror”), Jack Bandeira (“The Silent Twins”), Richard Dempsey (“Doctor WHO “), just to name a few!
This movie was directed by Michael Grandage.
This movie was released on November 4th 2022. It is a Drama and Romance. It is rated R for sexual content.
This movie is a book adaptation of the novel “My Policeman” by Bethan Roberts.
This movie debuted at the “Toronto International Film Festival”, “Newport Beach International Film Festival”, “London Film Festival”, “Santa Fe Film Festival” and at the “Hamptons Film Festival”.
Onto the premise: The arrival of Patrick into Marion and Tom’s home triggers the exploration of seismic events from 40 years previously.
The movie actually starts in 2000, where Tom and Marion are retired and still together. Patrick has suffered a stroke, and Marion has taken him in to nurse, to Tom’s annoyance. Most of the action is told in retrospect from Patrick’s diary.
The pacing is slow but that’s okay for this movie. The acting is excellent, I heard it got an ensemble acting award at one of the film festivals it debuted at.
The seaside scenes are beautiful, and even the music matches well.
In one of the Q&A’s at the “Toronto International Film Festival” the director said he was attracted to the story, not just because it dealt with regret and amends, but for the political aspect. Gay rights are currently being threatened, and there is the contrast between 1957’s brutal police arrests in dark alleys and lives being ruined, with and 2000’s gay couples walking hand-in-hand down the street in daylight. Young actors with existing fan bases were cast, partly to show their fans what the “bad old days” were like.
It was so so beautiful and I was crying throughout the entire duration of the movie.
You can definitely see that Harry Styles is newer to acting than the rest of the experienced cast, but you can tell he fully embraced his character and portrayed a great Tom!
As a queer person, myself, this movie really meant a lot to me as it helped me understand more what older generations went through to get us to where we are today and why it is crucial that we don’t let it go back to how it was.
Honestly, I’m glad so many younger people will get to see this movie and understand how, while it still isn’t perfect, we, LGBTQIA+-community members, live in a much better place than those in the 50s. I also hope it helps people understand what those are going through in countries where homosexuality is still illegal.
Overall this is an absolute must watch!
The storyline is so important, I really believe everyone should see it. I hope it makes young people realise what people went through for us to get to the position we are in today and don’t take it for granted. I think this is an absolutely incredible story that is so beautifully done! I will be saying this, prepare yourself for crying your eyes out and it will be a slow movie, which might be a bit boring for some people!
Honestly, this movie has the potential to sweep the academy awards and all other award shows! Amazing performances and an incredible script, perhaps one of the most amazing movies of the year. I’m so glad that my expectations were met and Harry’s performance was better than in “Don’t Worry Darling”. The movie’s production value is exquisite and so much talent went into making it and it shows on the screen, along with it’s beautifully shot cinematography!
I know I’m sounding like a broken record BUT everything about this movie is wonderful! It’s beautifully directed and acted, the music feels astonishingly perfect, the picturesque settings seem out of a dream at times, and I think the whole cast is brilliant and deserving of all the praise they received at the festival. It’s definitely a must-watch movie and it was “worth a watch”!
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