I had not paid attention to the various festival reviews or comments about My Policeman so when I viewed it on Amazon Prime thinking I would see something light I was totally blown away. My Policeman is a truly beautiful and softly magnificent film. Michael Grandage’s adaptation of a novel inspired by E. M. Forster’s famous ménage à trois conjours a mood of British postwar repression and guilt. It accomplishes this through many ways.
The story is presented without judgment although the characters internal judgement of each other is quite obvious. The most striking communicative scenes are accomplished without dialogue but rather by the actors wonderful expressions and eyes. All of the acting is well done but the two women playing the same person are both able to pull off a very complex character. The accomplished lighting is amazing and plays a great part in the storytelling. Its use of darkness, shadows conveying the gloom and danger and the occasional bright shots showing the happy times.
The one slight flaw is that at times the transition between the 1950s and the 1990s accomplished through fades is too rough. But that does not take away from a film that keeps the viewer involved from start to finish.
As an aside, I grew up in Brighton where most of the film occurs but I left in 1951 and was too young to be aware of the real happenings.
For me My Policeman is the best film of the year, so far.
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