“My Policeman” is one of several LGBTQ-themed films in what organizers hailed as a “disruptive” year at North America’s biggest film festival, along with Billy Eichner’s rom-com “Bros” and the military drama “The Inspection” which praised the critics. “ But the world premiere of Styles’ latest film comes as the British actor-singer faces accusations from some high-profile critics that he appropriated queer culture, including his gender-nonconforming fashion choices, while keeping his own sexuality ambiguous. In the film, he plays Tom, a policeman caught in a forbidden love triangle with a young woman and an art gallery curator in 1950s Britain, when homosexuality was illegal. “I think there’s so much nuance to it and so much complexity that comes for people in real life around sexuality and finding themselves,” Styles said at a press conference in Toronto. The film, which also stars Emma Corrin and Rupert Everett, jumps between 1957 and 1999, portraying the trio in two different phases of their lives, when Britain’s attitudes and laws towards homosexuality had changed radically. It deals with the consequences for all three Toms of being forced to hide his love for the butler Patrick. “I think Tom’s version of acceptance is pretty depressing — I think he accepts that he’s going to deny that part of himself for a long time,” Stiles said. He noted: “For me, the reason why the story is so devastating is because ultimately for me, the whole story is about wasted time. “I think wasted time is the most destructive thing, because it’s the one thing we can’t control. It’s the one thing we can’t get back.”
