Film review: I Swear (plus ticket giveaway)

By sheer irony of fate, the release of Kirk Jones’ new comedy docudrama I Swear is overshadowed by the same thing the film works arduously to educate the audience on. It’s the elephant in the room that I rather get out of the way, because these innocuous fait divers usually add nothing to the conversation about the film itself. But it just so happens that, in this specific case, the controversy is ironically connected to the film’s morality, and addressing it cuts down on a lot of contexts.

This is the film at the centre of the controversy during the last BAFTA awards when someone shouted an offensive racial slur to actors Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan. The person who said the slur is John Davidson, a Scottish activist who suffers from Tourette’s syndrome and his presence at the ceremony was a celebration of his work educating the people of the United Kingdom about this debilitating condition and empowering those who suffer from it.

Unfortunately, nuance is not something the public is particularly good at, so everyone who missed the film set a spotlight on Davidson, lighting up the social with inane think pieces, calls for apologies, and a complete misunderstanding of what it means to live with Tourette’s. And all they had to do was to watch the film, which just so happens to be not bad at all.

Robert Aramayo plays Davidson who we first encounter as he’s about to meet the Queen to receive an MBE, ending with him dropping an F-bomb to the Royal. It’s a little funny gag on Davidson’s most famous inconvenience (until now, at least) but it sets up a gentle and hopeful narrative framing.

We move to 1983, teen Davidson (Scott Ellis Watson) is a promising goalkeeper with the potential to be scouted by the local Glasgow Rangers Football Club. An exemplary student, pride of his parents (played by Shirley Henderson and Steven Cree) and catching the eye one of the girls in his class, he seems on the top of the world when he slowly, and unexpectedly, starts developing nervous ticks, first with just sudden head movements that quickly develop into shouting inappropriate things. But this is the 80s, when knowledge of these things was virtually non-existent, so the life of young Davidson crumbles: he loses his place in the football team, is expelled from school, scares his date away, is forced to eat supper in front of the fireplace to avoid spitting food on other people, and his parents get divorced because of it.

Years later, Davidson (now Aramayo) lives alone with his mother. He knows what his condition is, but his development is still stunted by it. When he encounters a young school colleague Murray (Francesco Piacentini-Smith) who invites him to dinner at his house, something that Davidson had never done before. It’s here that he meets Murray’s mother Dottie (Maxine Peake), a nurse dying of cancer, who takes it upon herself to help and support Davidson. She invites him to the table with her whole family and treats his ticks like something that everyone will just have to live with. In a pivotal moment, Dottie teaches Davidson never to apologise for his ticks, regardless of what they are.

The relationship with Dottie helps Davidson face society. He moves in with the family so he can be with someone who supports him. Murray takes him drinking at the club for the first time, and Dottie finds a job at a local community centre with Tommy (Peter Mullen). All these supports show Davidson that there’s a way of educating his community, so when he faces bullying or physical violence, it doesn’t deter him from continuing to survive.

And that’s just the simplest of premises. It helps that British cinema has a tradition of solid working-class heart-warming comedy dramas that tend to fly under the radar but are always enjoyable. I Swear is not at the level of Pride, Good Vibrations or Angel’s Share, but it’s tackling the topic with openness, while avoiding corny emotional traps. Aramayo embodies Davidson so well by playing someone with ticks without feeling like he’s performing a disability. It’s a slippery slope, and Aramayo traverses it masterfully.

But Peter Mullan is the winner here as the working-class heart and soul of this story. A no frills, no BS man who accepts Davidson off the back, believing he can do the job with gusto.

I Swear is the type of pedagogic cinema that works with the art medium. It’s not groundbreaking, and Jones’ simplistic visual intelligence hinders the film from being a classic outside of the community it’s serving. But it’s hard to deny it when a celebration of its people was stained by the thing the film warns about. And thus, art doesn’t imitate life but can counsel it.

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5
For those who prefer their British Kitchen Sink dramas both fun and educational.

Ticket giveaway: The Deb

LSJ and Rialto Distributions have 10 double passes for the upcoming Australian comedy THE DEB.

In the spirit of Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, THE DEB is a bold, outrageous and funny musical about two clashing teenage cousins who team up for their town’s debutante ball.  As farm girl Taylah chases a fresh start, her cynical city cousin Maeve shakes things up – leading them both toward self-acceptance (and dates for the big night). In cinemas April 9. Watch the trailer here.

For a chance to win one of the digital passes, email your LawID number to journal@lawsociety.com.au with the subject line THE DEB, by Tuesday 7 April.