by Julian Wood
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Robert Aramayo, Peter Mullan, Shirley Henderson, Maxine Peake
Intro:
… both wincingly inappropriate and wildly funny. There is a bittersweet reality on display here.
One wonders if there should be a language warning on this winning British dramedy. Fucking great film! Sorry, where were we?
I Swear will no doubt charm audiences. The subject matter is Tourette’s Syndrome, or rather, it features the story of person who has that condition and his struggles therein. As we know, with TS, it is not just the swearing that obtrudes; there are also the ticks, the spitting, the involuntary lashing out. It does have confronting side effects to be sure. One can see why it was seen as an ‘affliction’ to use an out-of-date phrase. But that is the whole point here really. People with the condition don’t want to be doing the stuff they keep doing.
Our hero John (Robert Aramayo) – and he is a hero in many ways – fights his own compulsions every day. He has a normal (loaded term) childhood until about fourteen, when he develops the characteristic behaviours. He is living in a small town in Scotland, and, at that time, no one has any real understanding or sympathy. This is even more painful as John is clearly an honest, straightforward, and kind individual. His mother (the brilliant Shirley Henderson) tries her best to understand what is going on, but beyond a bit of tough love, she fairly soon runs out of patience. His dad is even more nonplussed.
Luckily, John has a mate whose mum Dotty (Maxine Peake) has the patience of a saint and the indomitable will to help. With her help, he gets a part time job and has another stroke of luck in that his new employer Tommy Trotter (Peter Mullan, a rock-solid support player) can see past John’s ‘eccentricities’. He articulates the key message of the film when he says that, “Tourette’s isn’t the problem, it is society’s lack of understanding of what Tourette’s is, that is the problem.”
The film is very emotional and British in the way that it is handled, but it doesn’t always play safe. There have to be unpleasant moments, mostly to do with other people’s cruelty. Living with Tourette’s can’t be an easy life. The film is leavened, however, by lots of outlandish humour. Some of the disinhibited things that come out of John’s mouth are both wincingly inappropriate and wildly funny. There is a bittersweet reality on display here.
I Swear is based on a true story (of course) but, although that aspect top and tails it, 90% of the film plays as an involving drama rather than a dramatised documentary. Also, with this depth and quality of support playing, director Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine) cannot go wrong, and he has safely delivered a crowd-pleaser.
The last word must go to the central performance of Robert Aramayo, which is nothing short of career-making. He recently scooped a leading man BAFTA against big name nominees, and when you see the film, you will not doubt that judgment.
