I Swear (15) Film Review
Dir: Kirk Jones, UK, 2025, Dur 120 mins
Cast: Robert Aramayo, Scott Ellis Watson, Maxine Peake, Peter Mullan
Review by Carol Allen
Hence the title I Swear, being the true story of John Davidson, a Tourette’s sufferer who ultimately receives an MBE for his work helping other people with the condition. And yes, when John, played in the film by Robert Aramayo, went to palace to receive his gong from the late Queen Elizabeth II, inevitably he shouts, “F**k the Queen.” Her majesty however understood and soon so do we, as we learn John’s story. Because this is overall a film about kindness and understanding
Played as a boy by Scott Ellis Watson, John at first is a bit of a star at school. Good academically, shining at sport, popular with his fellows. Then at the age of 14, Tourette’s strikes, starting with twitching and blinking and then comes the day when he shouts am uncontrollable obscenity at this Mum (Shirley Henderson), a cold and unsympathetic woman, who rejects him blaming her son for the fact that her husband has walked out. This is Scotland in the eighties, when not even the doctors understood Tourette’s.
John becomes ostracised at school and as a young adult is beaten up by friends of a young woman, who believes he has assaulted her verbally. – a situation which lands him in court struggling mightily in the witness box However things take a turn for the better when a former school friend takes him home to meet his mother Dottie (Maxine Peake), a cancer survivor, who, though she raises the odd eyebrow at some of John’s outbursts, realises that here is a fellow spirit who needs support. John then makes another friend in Tommy Trotter (Peter Mullan), caretaker at the community centre where John finds a job.
It is as I say a film about kindness but it’s never sentimental and also very funny in the tradition of other British films of the 80s about struggle against the odds such as The Full Monty or Calendar Girls. Aramayo is unknown to film audiences unless they’re fans of Game of Thrones but he more than holds his own against seasoned comedy and drama professionals like Peake, Mullan and Henderson, giving a confident, nuanced and fully rounded performance. So too does Elllis Watson as the young John, rising to the complexities of the character in his first ever film role.
