John Davidson: diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome at a young age which alienated him from his peers, he struggled with a condition few people had witnessed.

‘I Swear’ tells the story of John Davidson, a Scottish man with Tourette’s syndrome who has became a campaigner for more awareness of the condition. Those of us in the UK may be familiar with Davidson’s story from a series of BBC documentaries that followed him at different stages of life, from a teenager in the late 80s to the grown man he is today, and they followed a path where the understanding of the condition has grown significantly – in a lot of respects driven by work Davidson has done to raise awareness. I knew going into ‘I Swear’ that this was going to be the kind of movie that would make me both laugh and cry and so it proved, and it was even better than I expected.

The film begins in the late 80s as a teenage John Davidson develops Tourette’s syndrome as he starts high school, leading to him being bullied, belted by the headteacher and causing significant issues at home with his parents and siblings. Understanding of the condition was basically non-existent at the time, so these scenes are especially tough to watch as John is accused of acting up, suffering dire consequences as a result. It is only a few years later when he meets a schoolfriend’s mum who is a mental health nurse (Dottie, played by Maxine Peake), that he starts to gain some confidence, finding a job and finding his activist voice to raise awareness of Tourette’s syndrome, albeit this period in his life isn’t without its troubles.

Robert Aramayo plays the leading role and he is outstanding, capturing the essence of who John Davidson is without portraying the condition in an exaggerated way. As John acknowledges himself, his Tourette’s can be funny, but it is debilitating to live with and ‘I Swear’ manages to find the right balance between making you laugh at some of the things John says and does, while also getting you right in the gut as he suffers many negative consequences of his condition. The supporting cast features the always excellent Maxine Peake and Peter Mullan, who play two individuals who become mentors to John, while Shirley Henderson is also good as his mother, and they complement Aramayo’s performance really well.

It sounds a cheesy, cliched thing to say but ‘I Swear’ is a genuinely life affirming movie that will make you laugh, smile and hit you emotionally, often at the same time. I thought it was superb, a really terrific movie with top performances and an important story well told about a condition that is still not really that well understood.

Rating: 5/5

Directed By: Kirk Jones

Starring: Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson and Peter Mullan

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt31514146/