Since cinema is cinema, singers have wanted to become actors. Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Bad Bunny or Lady Gaga are just a few examples of an endless list of those celebrities who wanted to have it all. Not all show talent, of course, but there are some who have their own charisma that makes them special. This is the case of Harry Styles, who after amassing a fortune as a member of One Direction and after three solo albums, now try your luck with the cinema… and show that you have some material, even if the film is not on your side.
in the right direction
It only took three movies and a cameo to appear on the poster for ‘Don’t worry, dear’ and ‘My Police’, a film that promised to be a dramatic discovery and has stayed on the sidelines. simple pantomime because of a soft script and a simple and boring direction, which At times it reminds us of the melodramas of Antena 3 on weekends.
The structure of the tape is a complete mess, interpolating scenes from the past and the present, without realizing that this montage trick sells the fish before the plot itself: if the interest of the film was to resolve the love triangle, the first scene already makes everything so clear that the rest is accessory. If we add that the director does nothing to make us feel attracted to these characters, the result is a perfect unsalted bread to have in the background. No matter when you arrive, the movie is self explanatory.
The least one can ask of a melodrama is to feel something for the characters, but ‘My police’ is formulaic and from the early 2000s: it is impossible to feel something for any of the points of the love triangle that is not boredom. It is not the fault of the characters themselves, but of a script that practically leaves telegraphed where the story has to go and flatly refuses to surprise even a little bit.
Lots of police, little fun
The British police repression towards disadvantaged groups was already better told in the portentous series ‘Small Axe’. Here, in fact, it seems as if really denounce the abuses for complying with the file: in the end, it doesn’t work as a denunciation film, nor as a love melodrama. It’s like a commissioned film in which no one who participates has a special interest in that it comes out better than something simply visible, leaving the enjoyment aside and avoiding the disaster by the hair.
At least the actors are inside the tapealthough the script does not accompany: Harry Styles is the best known face and plays a very reliable role, but those who take the cat to water are David Dawson, who achieves a contained performance and who tells everything with the looks, the gestures and the silences, and his adult counterpart, Rupert Everett, whose character has just suffered a stroke and performs an interpretive tour de force.
The cast gives much more to the film than it gives back: its lack of originality and hieraticism in all technical aspects they make him only comply with the ballot, but not be able to go further. It’s almost as if Michael Grandage, its director, I thought they already had it all done having Styles in the castSo really, why bother?
More than this. Por favor.
The saddest thing about ‘My Police’ is that he could have given much more of himself: it had the historical time, the social denunciation, the drama served on a platter, the dedicated actors… That the final result is satisfied with alluding to the most basic human feelings (jealousy, love, passion and lack of love) without exploring a bit in them is a missed opportunity to mark a game of subtleties, looks and personalities capable of evolving throughout the footage.
But there is no time for niceties: the film is aware that, due to its condition, it will end up in thousands of Tumblr posts, tweets and TikTok videos, so take the opportunity to sneak scenes of passion at the earliest possible opportunitygiving the public what they want to see: Harry Styles without clothes. ‘My police’ remains on the surface, without interest in scratching morebelieving that the minimum is enough to have some recognition.
Its premiere on Amazon Prime Video through the back door (a single tweet with photos of the cast, not a single one of the film) is a symptom that nobody cares about the final result of ‘My Police’: in the end, it has its share of connection with titles like ‘Love in Hawaii’ or ‘Viva Las Vegas’. Like the Elvis movies, this Harry Styles movie exists just so the singer’s (and actor’s) audience can watch him for two hours. The argument, the drama, the direction or even the rest of the actors are secondary. And the star is not big enough to outshine everything else.