A One Mann’s Movies review of “I Swear” (2025, 4.5*, 15).
The human brain is a remarkable thing: the most complex organ in the human body, it can process trillions of bytes of information faster than the best computers to help your body navigate a busy tube station or help you pick up a pin (like Blythe!) from across a room. But it is so complex that when it goes wrong it can be frightening. As a teen, I had a brief period – thankfully temporary – of night-time epilepsy and still remember (with a cold sweat) the terror of my body being completely out of my own control. So my heart goes out to sufferers of Tourette’s Syndrome, as typified by John in the new film “I Swear”.
Of course, the extreme swearing mandates it getting a 15 certificate according to the BBFC guidelines. But in many ways, it’s a shame that this film isn’t a 12A to allow more younger teens to see it. For it is a compassionate eye-opener to those unfamiliar with the condition.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
John Davidson (Scott Ellis Watson) is a perfectly normal young teen, just starting in a Galashiels secondary school. But he suddenly, and bafflingly to him and everyone around him, goes down with an increasingly damaging mental affliction: Tourette’s Syndrome. Now older and still suffering, John (Robert Aramayo), gets the friendship and help of Dottie Achenbach (Maxine Peake) – a caring mental health nurse with her own medical issues – to set him on a better path.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Very strong language, brief violence, sex references.”)
Talent:
Starring: Robert Aramayo, Peter Mullan, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, Scott Ellis Watson, Francesco Piacentini-Smith.
Directed by: Kirk Jones.
Written by: Kirk Jones.
Running Time: 2h 0m.
Summary:
Positives:
- Funny, poignant and totally charming.
- A pretty linear telling of the story without gimmicks or frills.
- Terrific performances from both Robert Aramayo and Scott Ellis Watson.
- Great real-life clips at the end.
- A real sense of the 1970’s plus Kia Ora!!
Negatives:
- Perhaps it didn’t need the syrup of the mother/son reunion scene.
Full Review of “I Swear”:
I was waiting for an “event”.
What’s scary about this film to me is the way in which John’s illness just ‘happened’. One day he is a perfectly normal schoolboy; the next he is twitching uncontrollably; the next he is shouting to a girl to “suck my c**k”; and so the decline continues. During a football playing scene, where John was the goalie, I was waiting for him to dive for a ball and crack his head on the goalpost. Something… anything… to trigger it. But no. It just ‘happened’.
The reaction of those around him is appalling in a society completely ignorant of the condition. His parents are appalled with his spitting out his dinner and make him sit on the floor facing the fireplace to avoid the mess; his headteacher tries to beat it out of him; the police have no idea.
Hats off to young Scott Ellis Watson for playing the young John. The main star of the film, Robert Aramayo, is getting all the credit, but it is Watson who has to play John both as a perfectly normal boy AND as a Tourette’s-suffering one. He does it brilliantly.
Potential salvation.
Wind forwards a few years and Robert Aramayo takes over playing John and also does it simply brilliantly. He has the ticks down to a ‘T’, nearly every time dismissing his verbal outbursts with a muttered “For fuck’s sake” under his breath in a statement of self-loathing. It is his old school-friend Murray (Francesco Piacentini-Smith) who leads him to a form of salvation by taking him home for tea to his Mum, Dottie (Maxine Peake). With a wonderful irony, Dottie is dying of liver cancer but makes it her life’s mission – or what’s left of it – to try to set John back on a more stable path.
Maxine Peake – one of our unsung national acting treasures – is superbly engaging a Dottie. She handles John’s outbursts – both vocal and physical – with such poise, grace and good humour. She is one of the reasons that film has such heart at its centre. The relationship between John and Dottie shoves a wedge between him and his mum, creating an uncomfortable son/mother/proxy-mother triangle. There is reconciliation between son and mother which although sweet felt like a bit of a sugary sop for the finale: one of the few missteps of the film imho.
A rollercoaster of experiences.
The film really is a rollercoaster of ups and downs for John. We see the heartache of his behaviour being wildly misunderstood. We see the joy of him getting his first ever job as an assistant caretaker working for Tommy (Peter Mullan) in a community centre: a most unusual interview, with a most disconcerting finale! We also see him move into his own home and the outcome of that. But more importantly for the arc of the film, we see him find his purpose in life, delivering some of the most heart-warming and life-affirming scenes you are likely to see in a movie in 2025. This is a real crowd-pleaser.
Fabulous production design.
For a film largely set in the 70’s and 80’s, the production design is top notch, complete with Opal Fruits (Starburst to you modern lot!) My absolute favourite was when John went on a disastrous date to the cinema with a girl. The advert showing was the old Kia Ora ad starting with Leonard Rossiter intoning “Your projectionist tonight is Eric…”: an advert that took me right back to drinking plastic-tasting orange squash through a plastic straw… God knows how much micro-plastics I ingested on my many trips to the cinema! This is followed by the classic Cadbury’s Flake advert, with a gorgeous woman fellating a chocolate bar! Ah… those were the days!
But surely not all of that really happened?
It’s really been played down in the publicity of the film, but “I Swear” is indeed a biopic based on the life of the real-life John Davidson.
But surely he didn’t keep ticking to tell his dog to cross the road when there was traffic coming? And surely he didn’t just suddenly whack Dottie in the face in the middle of a supermarket? Well, he did. And as if to prove that, at the end of the film we have a sequence of the real-life footage of John doing just those things. Some of this comes from a 1989 BBC Documentary called “John’s Not Mad”. A brilliant realisation that the truth is no less bizarre than the fiction.
Summary Thoughts:
This is a simply brilliant British Film and although there are probably other worthy candidates, I can see this being one of the frontrunners at the 2026 BAFTAs for “Best British Film”. As long as you are OK with the bad language (think “Wicked Little Letters” again, but worse!) this is Highly Recommended. Although beware if you get too into the film: I found walking home afterwards I had an almost over-whelming urge to randomly shout at passers-by “Donald Trump’s a c***”! Perhaps Tourette’s is lurking just below the surface of many of us, waiting to seep out.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeWqQN3snCU.
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