Review: I Swear

Official Synopsis: John Davidson (Robert Aramayo) was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome at a young age in the 80's which alienated him from his peers as he struggled with a condition few people had witnessed.

I've been singing Robert Aramayo's praises for the past couple of years due to his work on Prime's Rings of Power. His Elrond is better than Hugo Weavings. There, I said it. So I've been anticipating this film for quite some time. Even with the BAFTAs controversy looming over it, I Swear will likely go down in history as THE movie about Tourette's Syndrome. 

We meet John as a young teenager played by Scott Ellis Watson. Life is going good for him until he starts developing ticks that he can't control. We then skip 13 years and catch up with John as an adult, who starts to live with his friend's family and bonds with Dottie ( Maxine Peake) and eventually gets a job alongside Tommy. (Peter Mullen) 

The film skips the initial diagnosis process in the time jump and picks up John already diagnosed and not liking the medication he's on. For a biopic about an illness, that is a different choice, but it does lead to a (probably unintentional) weird anti-medication stance because this is only brought up this one time and never mentioned again. I'm not well educated in Tourette's Syndrome, but I thought this was an odd thing to never return to.

Part of that I believe is Kirk Jones just being an overall weak director. The way some of the scenes in this film end seem so unsure of themselves. Like they just have to cut to black and move on. There's no sense of transition. So on a technical level, it's not a great movie, but the performances make up for it in leaps and bounds.

Aramayo is fantastic. I hope he can remain in the Best Actor conversation towards the end of the year because he absolutely deserves it. Peake and Mullen give wonderful supporting turns as well. And the film does a great job of educating on Tourettes. It will hit you right in the heartstrings towards the end when John starts meeting with other people that suffer from it. 

Even though it's not perfect, the performances are and that makes it worth seeing.

Grade: B