‘I Swear’ review: Robert Aramayo is exceptional as real-life Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson

Dir/scr: Kirk Jones. UK. 2025. 121mins

It’s robust to be an adolescent. It’s much more tough to be an adolescent in a small Scottish border city – and tougher nonetheless to be one dwelling with Tourette’s Syndrome at a time when the neurological dysfunction was barely recognised as a situation, not to mention understood. That was the truth confronted by John Davidson, who developed Tourette’s at 14 and located his whole life without end modified. Whereas this stirring dramatization of Davidson’s life hits standard narrative beats, delicate dealing with and a outstanding central efficiency from Robert Aramayo do heartwarming justice to a outstanding life.

Does heartwarming justice to a outstanding life

Written and directed by Kirk Jones (behind different such crowd-pleasers as My Huge Fats Greek Wedding ceremony 2 and Nanny McPhee) I Swear premieres in Toronto and can be launched within the UK on October 10. It’s prone to do finest on dwelling soil, however the universality of this situation might nicely assist it journey. On the very least, it marks Aramayo (Antebellum, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Energy) out as a significant big-screen expertise.

It’s the early Nineteen Eighties within the small Scottish city of Galashiels, and adolescent John (Scott Ellis Watson) has little on his thoughts aside from soccer and women. When he begins to develop bodily and verbal tics, which trigger him to swear and lash out uncontrollably, he’s met with scorn and punishment. His headteacher lashes his arms; his mom Heather (Shirley Henderson) makes him eat his meals on the lounge flooring. John is recognized with Tourette’s at 14, however that brings with it no magic remedy.

The movie chooses to leap ahead 13 years, so we don’t see John obtain his prognosis, his tough time in school, the aftermath of his mother and father’ divorce. There’s no point out of the 1989 BBC documentary, John’s Not Mad, which adopted a 16-year-old John, though footage does play throughout the finish credit. (4 follow-up documentaries additionally aired between 2002 and 2016.) As a substitute, Jones’s screenplay picks up the story when John (now performed by Aramayo) is in his late 20s, nonetheless dwelling at dwelling and largely resigned to his lot. It’s at this level that John meets Dottie (a superb Maxine Peake), the psychological well being nurse mom of an old style pal, and, along with her affected person assist, begins to search out the boldness to return out from behind the shadow of his situation.

Davidson is credited as an govt producer and has clearly labored carefully with the filmmakers to create an genuine illustration of his life. The narrative, which largely takes place between the late Nineteen Nineties and current day, unsurprisingly focuses on key incidents which have essentially the most dramatic influence: John being arrested by the police for his uncontrollable swearing; crushed with a crowbar for inadvertently insulting a lady; hauled to courtroom for by accident lashing out at somebody in a membership; getting his first job.

The abuse John faces is upsetting however well-handled; that almost all of it stems from ignorance of his situation is rarely used as justification or excuse. As John’s less-than-supportive mom, Henderson offers a nuanced efficiency that speaks to the exhaustion and exasperation that come from caring for somebody with Tourette’s – though it’s additionally clear that she selected to not educate herself in any possible way. Elsewhere, some moments spotlight the unavoidable humour in a few of John’s ill-timed tics – blurting out that he has ejaculated in his tea throughout a job interview, for instance – however, crucially, they by no means make John the butt of the joke. He himself recognises the humorous aspect of his situation, typically utilizing humour as a strategy to join with these round him.

Some could surprise why the movie solid Aramayo, a person who doesn’t reside with Tourette’s, to play this function. Questions of representations apart, Aramayo offers an unimaginable flip as John, clearly having labored onerous to analysis the situation in order that his tics come throughout as solely pure reasonably than as any form of efficiency. Outdoors of the bodily calls for of the function, Aramayo captures the anxiousness and disappointment of this light man, who has each accepted who he’s and understands the restrictions it brings to his life. Tourette’s has shrunk his world, and cinematographer James Blann captures the intimacy of this small-town location; the welcoming inside of Dotty’s dwelling, the neighborhood centre the place John lastly will get a job as a caretaker alongside gruff, kindly Tommy (an endearing Peter Mullan) who turns into a key ally.

It’s Tommy who encourages John to search out the braveness to make use of his situation as an academic instrument, to begin speaking to different younger folks with Tourette’s. That extends to lectures in faculties and conferences with the police, and ends with John receiving an MBE from the Queen in 2019. An early scene which sees John shout ‘Fuck The Queen’ within the silence of this austere setting is, as with the remainder of the movie, jaw-dropping and fully true.