Review: 'I Swear' is a feel-good biopic about a man with Tourette's, raised higher by Robert Aramayo's emotional performance
Most biographical dramas don’t have as much cursing as you find in “I Swear,” but given the subject — a Scottish lad with Tourette’s Syndrome, which comes with involuntary tics and verbal outbursts — it’s understandable.
However, like many biopics about someone with a debilitating medical condition, there are ample moments of emotional uplift and sentiment, sometimes laid on a bit thick.
The movie starts with its main figure, John Davidson (played by Robert Aramayo), in 2019, as he’s about to receive an MBE, a high British honor, presented by the Queen of England herself. He’s being honored for his work advocating for people, like him, who have Tourette’s. The joke in the preliminary scene is that in his moment of triumph, he blurts out something rude about the Queen.
The movie then flashes back to 1983, when a young John, played by Scott Ellis Watson, is introduced to the audience as a regular teen in Edinburgh, Scotland. He’s one of three kids of Heather (Shirley Henderson) and David (Steven Cree). He’s starting in middle school, and he’s showing promise as a soccer goalkeeper.
As the school year starts, young John starts developing uncontrollable movements in his neck and back, as well as spitting and swearing. His mum, thinking he’s joking, forces him to eat on the floor, facing the fireplace. His dad reacts by walking to the pub, and later walking out of the marriage. His headmaster (Ron Donachie) applies a belt to the boy’s palm.
After a suicide attempt, his mum takes John’s condition seriously enough to see a doctor, and soon John is on medication to tamp down his tics and outbursts. The medication also makes him miserable — which Dottie (Maxine Peake), the mother of one of John’s classmates, sees instantly. Dottie, a former mental-health nurse, takes John into her family home, the first sign of love and understanding he’s felt since his Tourette’s began.
The adult John tries to live a normal life, though his shouted obscenities get him in trouble with guys who start bar fights, thugs who beat him up on the street, and police tossing him in jail. With Dottie’s help, John finds a job at the town’s community center, assisting the gruff caretaker, Tommy (played by the great Scottish actor Peter Mullan).
It’s Tommy, in his no-nonsense way, who says what becomes John’s motto for life: “The problem is not Tourette’s. The problem is that people don’t know enough about Tourette’s.”
Writer-director Kirk Jones — whose resumé includes “Waking Ned Devine,” “Nanny McPhee” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” — isn’t the most subtle of filmmakers, and here the moments of John’s life are played out in a steady, unremarkable progression. There are some surprising grace notes, particularly near the end when a much older John is shown a research team’s work in trying to quell the louder effects of Tourette’s.
The reason to watch “I Swear” is Aramayo, a talented young actor whose work here earned him a Best Actor BAFTA. (You may remember the unfortunate moment when the real Davidson let loose with a vocal tic during the award ceremony, shouting out the N-word near a microphone when “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo had taken the stage.)
Aramayo gets the surface mannerisms of John’s condition down (and there’s some obligatory documentary footage of John over the closing credits to use for comparison), but more importantly he captures the feeling of what it’s like to be burdened with this condition — and also carry the positivity that has allowed him to build a meaningful life.
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‘I Swear’
★★★
Opens Friday, April 24, in select theaters. Rated R for language throughout and some violence. Running time: 120 minutes.