I Swear <\/p>\n
\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 <\/p>\n
Director: Kirk Jones<\/p>\n
Cert: 15A<\/p>\n
Starring: Robert Aramayo, Scott Ellis Watson, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, Peter Mullan<\/p>\n
Running Time: 2 hrs<\/p>\n
It is not difficult to explain what we are dealing with here. I Swear is in the great tradition of films about courageous real-life personalities coming to terms with misunderstood disabilities.<\/p>\n
There is now some sensitivity about able-bodied actors taking on such roles, but it is hard to imagine anyone objecting too vociferously to Robert Aramayo\u2019s deeply empathetic turn as a pioneer in the understanding of Tourette syndrome. The English actor, best known as Eddard Stark in Game of Thrones<\/a>, has plainly devoted himself to a study of the condition. It is an uncanny turn that engenders sympathy without risking mawkishness.<\/p>\n Kirk Jones, the film\u2019s writer and director, has made one significant alteration to John Davidson\u2019s life story. Raised in Galashiels, on the Scottish Borders, Davidson was the subject of three BBC documentaries, the first broadcast in his teens, and through much of the period covered he was already something of a public figure.<\/p>\n Excising those details allows a cleaner story that focuses on Davidson\u2019s efforts \u2013 helped by kindly folk in the person of beloved actors \u2013 to shake off prejudice and bring together others with the condition.<\/p>\n The first scene reassures us that some sort of happy ending is in store. Accompanied by Dottie Achenbach (Maxine Peake), a local nurse who came to act as second mother to him, Davidson arrives at Holyrood Palace, in Edinburgh, to receive an MBE from Queen Elizabeth. He is barely in the door before he barks \u201cF**k the queen!\u201d <\/p>\n Kirk\u2019s balanced script manages to recognise the undeniable humour in such situations without inviting the audience to laugh at Davidson. Dottie rolls her eyes. Nobody is beheaded.<\/p>\n The film is engaged in similar tensions. It recognises how difficult it was for those around him but doesn\u2019t hold back in revealing unnecessary cruelties. We feel for his stressed mum (a typically sympathetic Shirley Henderson), who ultimately can\u2019t cope. We have less sympathy for furious teachers who, as recently as the 1980s, were still allowed to enforce discipline with a leather strap.<\/p>\n As the film tells it, Davidson lived a largely unremarkable life until his early teens. He was a talented goalkeeper who attracted the attention of professional scouts before Tourette\u2019s put paid to routine communication. He developed tics, involuntary swearing and a tendency to obsessive repetitions. His uncontrollable spitting eventually caused his mother to place him in front of the hearth when eating his dinner.<\/p>\n [\u00a0Steve review: Cillian Murphy\u2019s performance feels well-worked but unsatisfactoryOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n