‘I Swear’ Review: Down-to-Earth Tourette Syndrome Drama Is a Fine Showcase for ‘Rings of Power’ Star Robert Aramayo

Based on the real life of Tourette Syndrome campaigner John Davidson, who takes an exec credit here, “I Swear” is a biopic about a man who came of age in 1980s Scotland at a time when Tourette Syndrome was misunderstood and barely acknowledged, leading him to experience everything from difficulties dating to horrific physical violence.

The “I” in “I Swear” is played by “The Rings of Power” star Robert Aramayo, while the second part of the title is a play on the involuntary expletives prompted by his character’s condition, as well as an oath he has trouble with in a key courtroom scene. Written and directed by Kirk Jones (“Waking Ned Devine”), the film wrestles enthusiastically and mostly successfully with the potential pitfalls of making a funny yet respectful project about a condition that sometimes lends itself to laughter, even as it wreaks havoc with Davidson’s life in serious ways.

We’re introduced to Davidson in Edinburgh in 2019, receiving an honor from the Queen. He yells, “Fuck the Queen,” but he’s no undercover anti-monarchist. It’s one of perhaps hundreds of potentially mortifying tics and exclamations we’ll see from him over the course of the two-hour runtime.

The film then rewinds to 1983, where we meet younger John, played in an affecting performance by young thesp Scott Ellis Watson as a boy on the cusp of adolescence who doesn’t even have a name for his condition as yet, far less any compassion or understanding from the adults in his life, whose responses range from unhelpful to abusive. The film doesn’t pull its punches here: While it’s made clear that Tourette Syndrome was essentially unheard of, it’s nevertheless obvious that some responses to it are humane and some are not. Ignorance is not portrayed as an excuse.

As the adult Davidson, Aramayo delivers a flawless portrayal of a guy balancing the desire to lead a normal life with the knowledge that it’s simply not possible. That urge to live in ways that others take for granted leads him into situations that we know are going to go poorly for him, and there’s genuine tension in not knowing whether it’s going to be a case of the relatively harmless (claiming to have ejaculated in the tea during a job interview, for instance) or the incredibly dangerous (mouthing off to drunk men in a Scottish nightclub).

This sense of peril extends to those around him, too: His physical tics mean that in addition to feeling constant suspense as to whether Davidson will be ok, the audience also finds itself on high alert on behalf of those around him. Aramayo does fine work portraying someone who is both vulnerable and, through no fault of his own, potentially dangerous.

Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson and Peter Mullan are on hand to lend their veteran acting pedigrees to three secondary roles: Henderson as John’s actual mother, Peake as a caring mother-substitute and Mullan as an understanding father figure (Steven Cree in a smaller role plays Davidson’s actual dad). Henderson in particular stands out, making the most of her ability to convey a finely balanced mixture of poisonous fury laced with a sense of victimhood. There’s a sense that the character feels Davidson’s Tourette’s is happening to her, personally, even more than it is to him.

This is a relatively traditional film of the sort that the UK film market was making by the dozen in the ’90s and early 2000s: handsome crowdpleasers with an underlying social angle, sometimes based on a true story, whether that angle was unemployment (“The Full Monty”), ballet for boys (“Billy Elliot”) or leukemia (“Calendar Girls”).

Those films were huge successes, but didn’t have to contend with some of the representation and identity questions that may be posed today. Aramayo is not living with Tourette Syndrome, but the list can’t be long of actors who are. In any case, it’s hard to imagine anyone watching “I Swear” and feeling that there is a better version of Aramayo’s performance out there: He’s so good that he makes the case completely convincingly that this is his role to play.