In I Swear, John Davidson’s journey through life with Tourette’s syndrome in a time when there was little known about it is both triumphant and heartbreaking at the same time. We still don’t know much about how to treat it other than there could be a genetic factor around it, and Davidson’s story is told by pulling no punches at all.
Robert Aramayo (Elron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) plays Davidson with conviction and intensity having developed the symptoms as a high schooler. One of the more talented goaltenders in his age group, his Tourette’s could not come at a more untimely moment as he is being scouted by professional teams. Unable to understand how to deal with him causes a rift in his family (especially his mother (Shirley Henderson)), and through a chance meeting with a former classmate, Chris Achenbach (David Carlyle), he winds up moving in with Chris’ family. In doing so, he creates a close bond with Chris’ mother, Dottie (Maxine Peake), a former nurse like her mother dealing with her own health issues and seems to be the only person that truly understands him.
There are no words that I can express that truly express how much I enjoyed this film. The lack of sugar-coating the story by showing the extremes that people that deal with him go to along with how he deals with himself did make me wince a bit. It is not that wincing in a way that feels excessive in any way, but it more does so where my heart went out to him in a time where his outbursts were not seen as anything else but insubordination to everyone around him. From disciplinary actions to bar fights and more, he chooses to do his best with what he has and as his story progresses finds his path to adulthood and more.
Aramayo and Peake are simply FANTASTIC here in performances that need to be noticed by those in this country. They play the adopted mother and son in a way that fully had me bought in and enthralled the entire film. Henderson also shines as the woman whose pride does not want to admit that her son is not what she wanted him to be but reluctantly understanding why John needs to be at the Achenbach household. It would be easy to portray Heather as nothing short of the antagonist, but Henderson gives her enough heart to keep her performance walking the tightrope of complete “mean woman” and simply a mother who cannot help her son’s problems go away.
Seeing I Swear does exactly what I feel it is supposed to do: tell an amazing story about an amazing young man and imploring me to want to find out more. There is at least one documentary out there about him and a number about those dealing with Tourette’s syndrome that we all should take in as part of being better as people and having empathy for those around us.