I Swear

[1reason]

Highly recommend this new heartwarming but hard hitting film which is based on real life. You will laugh and you will also cry.
John Davidson developed Tourettes in his early teens while living in the Scottish Borders. This film covers 40 years of his life.
Stellar cast and great soundtrack.

Went to see this yesterday and was choking back tears all the way through. By the end I was sobbing. But it was also funny and uplifting. They managed to strike just the right balance between the sadness - although the early scenes were heartbreaking- and humour. Not an easy task.

Certainly one of the best films I’ve seen in ages and probably the best this year. The lead actor Robert Aramayo is simply superb.

Haven’t Stopped thinking about it since I left the cinema.

I can’t recommend it enough.

I think his mum just had no idea how to cope. It must have been hard in those days with so much less understanding of the condition,

I also have vocal and motor tics but very mild in comparison to John, I would compare it to me having a headache and he has the migraine version if that makes sense. However I was sobbing at the part of the film where he is chatting to Lucy, the young lady who also has tics. They explained it so well, the build up, the compulsion, the exhaustion, I'd only ever been dismissed by medical staff before and laughed at ( kindly in most cases) by peers and friends. My vocal tics don't tend to be sweary, more sounds and odd words " lasso" " rake" but when very tired or stressed can be really quite inappropriate " shut up!"
The actors are phenomenal, the writers/ directors also deserve all of the awards going. I will definitely watch again when it's streamed and will recommend to everyone.
Can you tell I liked it?

What an amazing film; so worth going to the cinema for. It’s being out a week or two and my cinema today was full!

We absolutely loved this film too. Best film I've seen for a long, long while. Definitely go and see it if you can.

Saw it last night with DS who is 15 and has Tourettes. We loved it. Laughed and we both cried. Although D S was very worried about the dog Rosie. But what a wonderful film.

It's an excellent film but hard to watch in places, bit of an emotional roller coaster, the cast are excellent.

Saw this at the cinema yesterday - amazing film. I cried the whole way through but such an uplifting movie!

Finally got to see this last night and thought it was fantastic. Very moving and great performances.

I haven't seen a bad review.

Just been to see this, absolutely brilliant.
I can't recommend it highly enough, should be compulsory viewing tbh.
I say that as someone who just shared the auditorium with on 4 other people, one of whom was shouting out, swearing and loudly agreeing at various points of the film.
Instead of my usual first response ( ffs, they're pissed at this time of day) or my second usual response of "I've paid good money for this and they're spoiling it for meeee', I recognised it for what it was - a young person with Tourettes. Just knowing that, recognising it, made the whole experience pleasurable rather than filled with resentment.
I probably haven't explained that well at all, hope you get the gist.
Brilliant film🙂

Yeah, I also thought she was quite cold though. But I guess my own mum was similar.

I thought the mum was portrayed really interestingly and actually quite subtly.

The sort of fear and anxiety over her child. With her knee jerk reaction of thinking she could punish his disability away. The devastation at the destruction of her family due to the issues which seemed to make her put on a carapace of armour that let nobody in and made her unable to relate to John, even though she clearly loved him. Then the clear jealousy when she bumped into Dottie and John at the supermarket and she saw another woman acting in a maternal role that she seemed to want for herself but was incapable of achieving. Followed by a sad, yet helpless sorrow at missing out on the biggest event of his life- receiving the MBE and recognition that it was her inability to connect with her own son that led to that.

It seemed a very cold situation, but I felt there was so much going on beneath it.

I saw it last week, absolutely superb, best film I've seen all year. Nostalgic as I grew up in the same era, deeply moving, beautifully acted and very funny in places too.

I found her quite cold from the start though - even before he developed Tourette’s. But I guess we were also meant to think she probably also wasn’t in a happy marriage with that dickhead father.

I agree, she was. I thought she was the kind not to show emotion but underneath there was obviously so much going on. She was clearly a deeply unhappy and unfulfilled woman.

Completely agree with all of this. Desperately sad for everyone involved.

I wonder how the real mum feels about her portrayal? If she's still around

The main actor is just incredible!

I thought the mum was portrayed brilliantly / those of us with children with neurodiversity know we do not always know how to handle things or get things right. It’s great not to have the mother as the saint who can handle anything as most of us are not like that and muddle through doing the best we can. And it was the father who up and left

I did find the DPs initial reaction odd and thought given the rapid changes they would at least have taken him along to the doctors.

I googled about his parents today but couldn't find much.

Such a great film.

I finally got to see this too and the main actor was brilliant, such a great film and what an inspirational guy. I'm sure he has helped so many young people with tourettes.

It was different times. They’d never have heard of Tourette’s back then, or other neurological conditions. They probably believed that if they took him to a doctor he’d be put into a psychiatric unit. I guess it was easier to tell themselves that he was just acting the goat until they couldn’t delude themselves any more.

He was diagnosed at 15, and the documentary “John’s not mad” was made when he was 16. Interestingly that wasn’t mentioned in the film at all.