I Swear
In 1983, thirteen year-old John Davidson (Scott Ellis Watson) was starting secondary school in Galashiels, Scotland where his prowess as a soccer goalie had drawn attention from a professional scout. Then he began to experience tics and uncontrollable twitching, which eventually led to profane verbal outbursts and spitting. His mother (Shirley Henderson, "24 Hour Party People," "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy") banished him from the family dining table, making him eat in front of the fireplace and his father, so supportive until John's condition caused him to flail in front of that soccer coach, left. Even after being diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome, John couldn't find acceptance until, as an adult (Robert Aramayo, "Palestine 36"), an old schoolmate's mother, former nurse Dottie (Maxine Peake, "The Theory of Everything"), familiar with mental health issues, opened her home to him. Dottie helped John forge a path forward that led to being awarded an MBE by the Queen in "I Swear."
Laura's Review: B
The film that caused two major upsets at the 2026 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards ceremony (Aramayo's Best Actor win over presumed frontrunner Timothée Chalamet and Davidson's unfortunate outburst as Michael B. Jordon and Delroy Lindo were presenting the Visual Effects award) arrives in the U.S. and it's not just Aramayo who impresses here (the film also won the BAFTA Best Casting award). Davidson's story is an important one, a call for tolerance and understanding of a syndrome that may not be easy to be around, unleashing uninformed abuse, but one which also has no known cure. The movie, itself, though, falters, David Davidson's (Steven Cree) abandonment of his family coming out of nowhere and writer/director Kirk Jones ("Waking Ned Devine," "Everybody's Fine") embracing movie-of-the-week cliche in his final act.
After a brief 2019 prologue introducing us to Davidson proving his anxiety about meeting the queen warranted when he shouts out a defamatory comment about her to the assembled, we meet him as that thirteen year-old and Ellis Watson is so utterly convincing as the aspiring athlete succumbing to and trying to cover up strange symptoms, it actually takes some adjusting when the Aramayo takes his place. In addition to the tics, swearing and spitting, John's right arm also violently juts out with no warning, something that inadvertently begins fights, his excessive apologies falling on deaf ears. He receives so many slaps across his palm from his school headmaster, he cannot use both hands in his goalie net. Realizing he is the reason his family has splintered, John goes to the one place he feels calm - his fishing bank - and attempts to drown himself.
Thirteen years later, John lives with his bitter mother, all his siblings long gone along with is dad. Shopping with the exasperated Heather, John runs into old schoolmate Murray (Francesco Piacentini-Smith, "The Nest"), who suggests they go for a walk. Murray, who knows about John's Tourette's, tells him he'd been away in Australia, having recently returned to care for his mother who has terminal liver cancer, and when they get to Murray's house, his mom insists John join them for dinner. When she opens the door, she's greeted with 'You're gonna die of cancer - ha ha.'
But this family understands, Dottie telling John he shouldn't apologize for something beyond his control, but outsiders still pose a problem. When Murray takes John to a club for the first time, a tic sends another man's drink flying and the ensuing melee lands the young man in jail. When he yells out 'Slut!' to a young woman in the street, apologizing profusely immediately afterwards, she sets two local thugs on him for a bad beating. But Dottie gently nudges John into society, first procuring him an interview with the local community center manager, Tommy Trotter (Peter Mullan, "The Magdalene Sisters," "Tyrannosaur"), then into his own living arrangement. And it will be Dottie who realizes that Tourette's isn't the problem, the lack of education is, propelling John into a series of seminars geared at the local populace, schools and police.
It's that latter part where Jones leans on formula with a montage of John speaking before several groups. Better are earlier scenes, handled with humor, such as John's first stab at helping another sufferer, a teenaged girl who's never met another person with the syndrome, setting off a volley of traded insults; or his interview with Tommy, where he undercuts his own attempts at promoting himself and spits in the man's tea. The film's title is not only a literal declarative statement, but also alludes to this tendency with his inability to 'swear' an oath in court without following with a 'tic' retraction.
Jones also uses a bookending strategy, returning to where he began, John, accompanied by Dottie, getting through the presentation without embarrassment. A sister shows up, the first time we've seen a sibling since John was thirteen, making us wonder if any had kept in touch, an odd distraction. But it is the actors who really deliver here, Aramayo, in a 180 degree turn from his villainous role in "Palestine 36," and Ellis Watson both excellent, Henderson and Peake maternal opposites with Mullan providing puckish warmth. Even with Tourette's Syndrome a known quantity for decades, "I Swear" provides empathetic education.
Robin's Review: B
John Davidson, age 12, is a normal working class kid in Galashiels, Scotland, aspiring to be a soccer star, Then, suddenly, he starts to develop face and body tics and swears involuntarily, but his family believes it will just go away on its own - but it will not - in "I Swear."
This is a true story. John Davidson is a real person. Tourette's is a debilitating illness, not because the individual suffering is harmful in any way. The debilitation comes from the misunderstanding of those around the victim, offended by the tics and swears.
This is the essence of what young John (Scott Ellis Watson) faced the moment the tics and swearing began. It is 1983 and, while Tourette's Syndrome was known about at the time, virtually no one understood it. This places the victims, like a 12-year old boy, in a world of being rejected – by family and friends and society.
When John begins to exhibit the first signs of Tourette's, his mother and father, instead of helping the boy, punish and banish him from the family circle. Of course, his condition puts off everyone at school – especially the school superintendent, who whips the boy for his "transgressions." Of course, he gets into fights because of them, too, and faces even more corporal punishment.
Jump ahead 13 years and for now-26-year old John (Robert Aramayo) things have not improved. Then, his best friend from when he was a kid and before Tourette's, Murray (Francesco Piacentini-Smith), returns after living in Australia. The family came home because Murray's mom, Dottie (Maxine Peake), was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She also happens to be a mental health nurse and can help John.
This is where John's troubled life enters a new phase when he is asked to talk to a young woman who is also afflicted with Tourette's. The first meeting is full of swears and tics but John realizes that he can help folks like-afflicted. This is where the lemons that John was handed by life are turned into lemonade.
This is a genuine rags to riches metaphor where John, with the help and support of Dottie and her family, turned his life around. What once was a condition that was not only misunderstood, the so-called "normal" people who are offended strike out, often physically, against the victims – for things no fault of their own.
I have tried to think of a film that had Tourette's as its affliction of the week. There may have been one or two that referred to the syndrome but not one with it as the primary subject matter. Writer-director Kirk Jones creates a unique story of a young man who, with the help of Dottie and others, not only took control of himself but helped others suffering the same way.
Jones and his two stars – young and grown up John – do a fine job in showing how the syndrome can isolate and destroy the life of the victim. But, this is also a kindness-of-a-stranger story that helped to change a young man's life for good. The happily-ever-after wrap up comes across as a bit too pat, like it is trying to just wrap things up. Still, it is an inspirational story of overcoming adversity and that is a very good thing. John, by the way, was awarded the MBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
Sony Pictures Classics releases "I Swear" in theaters on 4/24/26.
