{"id":14207,"date":"2026-03-21T13:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T17:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14207"},"modified":"2026-05-09T21:13:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:13:41","slug":"i-swear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/03\/21\/i-swear\/","title":{"rendered":"I Swear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I Swear<\/strong>\u00a0(2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sony Pictures Classics\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 120 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout and some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kirk Jones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Kirk Jones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Stephen Rennicks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Blann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 24, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, Peter Mullan, David Carlyle, Steven Cree, Francesco Piacentini-Smith, Scott Ellis Watson, Jamie McAllistar, Adam McNamara, Christina Modestou.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0SLEEPER ALERT! <\/strong>That\u2019s right, I\u2019m sounding the alarm. It\u2019s my duty to alert you to an extraordinary film that might get by you if you don\u2019t keep a sharp look out for it. It\u2019s not likely to open in more than a handful of cinemas so you\u2019re really going to have to be on the ball. I wouldn\u2019t want you to miss it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now, with no further ado, here\u2019s the title. It\u2019s called I Swear<\/strong> and I swear that you will love it. I never heard of it until last night when it turned out to be this week\u2019s AMC Screen Unseen feature. The ones that choose the films don\u2019t always get it right (The Mastermind anybody?), but this week they absolutely nailed it. It\u2019s a British-made BOATS drama about John Davidson, a Scottish man with severe Tourette syndrome. He was previously the subject of the BBC documentary John\u2019s Not Mad that first aired in 1989 as part of the Q.E.D. series. Footage from it is shown during the end credits.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Written and directed by Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine), I Swear<\/strong> follows John from age 13 (played by Scott Ellis Watson) when symptoms of Tourette\u2019s (i.e. uncontrollable tics, spitting and swearing) first started showing. He is ostracized at school and at home, mainly by his mother (Henderson, Bridget Jones\u2019s Diary) who won\u2019t even acknowledge anything\u2019s wrong with him until he tries to take his own life. Even then, she\u2019s not all that sympathetic.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The movie jumps ahead to when John (BAFTA winner Aramayo), now a young adult, continues to struggle with his condition. He is still living at home with his mother who takes care of him while still keeping her emotional distance. He bumps into an old classmate (Smith) who invites him to lunch at his house with his family. The mother Dottie (Peake, The Theory of Everything), who\u2019s dealing with liver cancer, takes an immediate liking to John and invites him to move in so they can take care of each other. A mental health nurse, she helps him get his symptoms under control, weaning him off his medication which is actually making things worse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I Swear<\/strong> follows us through John\u2019s life from him getting his first job at a community center to becoming an advocate for those with Tourette\u2019s, an endeavor that resulted in an MBE appointment from the Queen in 2019. Don\u2019t freak out. This is NOT a spoiler. The movie opens with it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I Swear<\/strong> belongs in the same category as My Left Foot (1989), The King\u2019s Speech (2010) and The Theory of Everything (2014). It\u2019s an inspiring story that rings with realism. It features a sympathetic main character with no control over the vile words that came out of his mouth. He uses racial, homophobic and sexist slurs. He has a tic that makes it necessary for others to always stay on his left side (he punches to the right). He\u2019s a lot to take, but it can\u2019t be helped. In the role, Aramayo does an incredible job. He realistically depicts Tourette\u2019s without overdoing it. He finds the flawed humanity in John without ever making him an object of pity. Instead of hiding his disability (not that he can), John takes it public, sharing his story in order to help others understand Tourette\u2019s. In his words, \u201cThe problem is not Tourette’s, the problem is that people don’t know enough about Tourette’s.\u201d Aramayo nails it perfectly. No wonder he won a BAFTA for his amazing, flawless performance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting in I Swear<\/strong> is great across the board from Peake as the motherly figure who helps John become independent to Henderson as the cold mother who has no idea how to deal with her disabled son. The latter believably captures her character\u2019s barely concealed resentment over her husband walking out when he realizes his son won\u2019t be a football star. Another fantastic performance comes from Peter Mullan (Trainspotting) as John\u2019s boss at the community center, a patient man who only asks that John never hit his dog (again). He\u2019s the one who encourages John to help the public gain a better understanding of his condition. He\u2019s such a great character.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I swear, I Swear<\/strong> is absolutely perfect in every way. Jones strikes just the right tone. It\u2019s dramatic, but not overly so. It\u2019s funny, but never at the expense of its protagonist. He never holds back in showing the symptoms of John\u2019s condition and the sometimes violent reactions of strangers. One of the best moments is John\u2019s first Tourette\u2019s workshop. It\u2019s the first time these kids and teens are being seen. I couldn\u2019t stop smiling.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I Swear<\/strong> is a tearjerker in the best way. You\u2019ll cry and you\u2019ll laugh. It\u2019s a nice movie. It\u2019s also a well made one. Nobody does drama like the British. It always feels so real. There\u2019s none of the polish of Hollywood. This is a film you really should check out. If you have to drive a bit, do it. You won\u2019t regret it. I swear you won\u2019t.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I Swear\u00a0(2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sony Pictures Classics\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 120 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout and some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kirk Jones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Kirk Jones\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Stephen Rennicks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Blann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 24, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, Peter Mullan, David Carlyle, Steven Cree, Francesco Piacentini-Smith, Scott Ellis Watson, Jamie McAllistar, Adam McNamara, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/I-Swear-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14210,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14207\/revisions\/14210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}