The Swearing Jar

Based on Kate Hewlett’s novel, The Swearing Jar follows Adelaide Clemens’ Carey as she prepares to have a baby with her husband (Patrick J. Adams’ Simon) – with complications ensuing after Carey begins a tentative friendship with a struggling musician named Owen (Douglas Smith). It’s a familiar premise that’s employed to erratic yet mostly watchable effect by Lindsay MacKay, as the filmmaker, working from Hewlett’s screenplay, delivers a sporadically stirring drama that benefits substantially from its lush visuals and strong performances – with, in terms of the latter, Clemens’ often hypnotic turn anchoring the proceedings and smoothing over the narrative’s less-than-enthralling stretches. (Adams and Smith are both quite compelling, as well.) There’s little doubt, then, that The Swearing Jar‘s hit-and-miss vibe is perpetuated by an ongoing (and needless) mystery within its opening stretch, and it’s clear, as a result, that certain mid-movie revelations pave the way for a second half that is, by comparison, much more satisfying and engaging – which does, in the final analysis, cement the picture’s place as a decent-enough (albeit palpably overlong) endeavor that ultimately receives plenty of mileage out of the engrossing efforts of its actors.

**1/2 out of ****