Much like its purported star—heartthrob Harry Styles—British director Michael Grandage’s adaptation of Bethan Roberts’s 2012 novel is wantedly handsome and genially bland. The titular policeman, Tom (Styles), is courting school teacher Marion (Emma Corrin), while also falling in love with museum curator Patrick (David Dawson). The story of the trio’s relationship is revealed in retrospect when several decades later a sickly Patrick (Rupert Everett) comes to live with retirees Tom (Linus Roache) and Marion (Gina McKee) at their seaside cottage. Tom and Patrick had enjoyed a torrid affair (to the filmmakers’ credit, there are no coy cutaways when it comes to the steamy sex scenes) until Tom and Marion wed and she realized that something was going on between the two men. I won’t divulge the circumstances and eventual revelation that account for the queer misery which inevitably befalls them, but it’s undeniably cliche; perhaps it says something about the current state of things that another elegant item of such suffering might be considered passé. But Styles isn’t so bad, and it’s nice to know Everett—whose opportunity to be a leading man was sidelined by homophobia after he came out in 1989—collected a paycheck. McKee plays her part with subtle pathos; it’s Dawson, however, who steals the show, adding something not found in Styles’s sedate performance. Still, the film treads water rather than breaking new ground. R, 113 min.
Limited release in theaters,streaming on Prime Video