If you do not know what Tourette’s syndrome is, watch this film. It is an essential art piece that serves both as an educational tool and the best campaign for awareness.
I Swear, which does, in fact, contain a lot of swearing (as the title implies), is a take on the life of John Davidson (Robert Aramayo), a man who grew up with Tourette’s and, through the kindness of a few strangers and his own strength, becomes an educational advocate for people with Tourette’s in the UK. The film begins in the future, in an A Beautiful Mind-style ceremony where Davidson is being recognized by the Queen, and his revealing of his condition creates quite a humorous situation. This is a much-needed assurance of Davidson’s resilience in the face of a society and school system that does not understand the blatant, offensive words he cannot help but shout due to his condition.
The film’s first part begins on a despairing tone, following the tough transition of young John at around 13–14 as he starts at a new school, makes new friends, and gets a chance to rise up the ranks on his local football team as a goalkeeper—only to have Tourette’s alter his ability to function as he did before.
The film spends a lot of time acclimating viewers to how the condition affects John, and naturally, following a character with Tourette’s is a very tense experience as we know that, at any moment, John may do something that provokes hate, violence, or punishment. In this part, the film lacks a central relationship to ground itself; it explores John’s friendships, family life, and school life, and briefly introduces his siblings, but there isn’t a central relationship that helps us track the changes. The most prominent is probably his relationship with his mother, which is severely tested as John gets in trouble at school and his father leaves the family for vague reasons. The father’s departure is treated with very little weight—the film does not explore this devastating family occurrence with the depth it warrants.
The film’s second part, where John is navigating adulthood while living at home with his mother, taking medication that makes him feel unwell, and lacking a job, is a stronger, more streamlined narrative section. John’s life as an adult is constantly met with problems, especially once he meets Dottie (Maxine Peake), a retired mental health nurse who is dying of cancer. With little time left to live and with an empty room in her house, Dottie radically invites John to live with her to see if they can help John experience the social life that anyone may desire.
This goal—to have John fit in, or as Dottie puts it, “have society fit into John’s world”—is met with obstacles, creating the effective goal-and-obstacle drama that most films rely on. John’s tics, where his arms flail and expletives are fired off unintentionally, make his goals—getting a job, going to a club, running errands, and making friends—a difficult task. But what is inspirational is Dottie’s belief that John’s spirit, skills, and kindness can overcome anything negative that arises from his tics. The most important task for John—getting a job—is aided by the local caretaker Tommy (Peter Mullan), who believes that John’s dedication and quality work reflect his great character. Despite all the challenges he faces, John still shows kindness and perseveres through the anger his tics provoke.
The final part of the film, which is likely the weakest and also appropriately the shortest, shows how John begins to collaborate with community institutions and starts making his community a place where people—mainly children with Tourette’s—can come together and do things they love in an accepting environment. This leads to his status as a recognized advocate for those living with Tourette’s and encourages key research that helps people with Tourette’s thrive despite the negatives their tics can cause. While this section is not as narratively compelling, the strong narrative groundwork laid earlier allows the film to indulge in showing why a story like this is important and why it spreads a much-needed social message that can have an immediate impact on how people view the world.
The performances are very good. Particularly, Robert Aramayo as John Davidson gives a stellar performance, capturing the condition’s specificities under the real John’s guidance as an executive producer. His unexpected win over Oscar favorites like Timothée Chalamet and Michael B. Jordan at this year’s BAFTA awards is not surprising. Aramayo brings the emotion, humor, and mannerisms excellently. He captures very human sarcasm, enthusiasm for life, but also the banality and boredom most of us feel with the world. He embodies an honest and earnest manner of speaking that characters in dramatic Hollywood films, especially biopics, often stray from, while still portraying the essence of an important figure. Aramayo’s performance feels authentic to John’s uniqueness while showing him as someone who considers himself just another person who wants to be loved. Peter Mullan and Maxine Peake also have great scenes, and Maxine plays her character with charm and gruffness, capturing a real person exceptionally well.
This film encapsulates the idea Roger Ebert had: films are empathy machines.
I Swear is in theatres on Friday, April 24th, 2026.
