Carey (Adelaide Clemens) and Simon (Patrick J. Adams) are very cute, married soul mates with a bit of a swearing problem. But they’re going to fix that—when anybody curses, five dollars comes out of their wallet and goes in the Swearing Jar. Life is good.
But at some point, both Carey and Simon have some big news to tell each other. One has good news, and the other has bad news. But what happens if the good news comes first, and has the effect of causing the bad news never to be revealed? That’s the movie’s premise.
Simon probably should have spoken first. Carey’s revelation? She’s pregnant. And Simon’s always wanted a child. And so he puts the lab report he got from the doctor back into his pocket before doing a victory dance. He doesn’t want to rain on Carey’s parade; his news can wait.
Ticking Clock
Carey still doesn’t know; she does sense that something is off, but not that it’s about him trying to stick around long enough to hold his baby. They’re vacillating between the name Rachel (Carey’s choice) or Gretchen (Simon’s), because Simon has suggested that if it’s a boy they should sell it, which roughly sums up their sense of humor.
Balancing Act
“The Swearing Jar” walks a narrow tightrope, which gets even more tricky when local bookstore clerk Owen (Douglas Smith) becomes smitten with Carey. It turns out that he plays a mean guitar, and Carey’s singing-songwriting creativity could use a good guitar player.So on the one hand, it’s hard to pity Simon’s situation, and on the other, the mere fact that he’s being incredibly frustrating to Carey—because she doesn’t really know anything for sure—doesn’t really allow us to be supportive of her starting to get flirtatious with Owen.
Isn’t This a Spoiler?
If you don’t have a clear-cut understanding of what’s going on, the tension that builds due to all this manipulation is most likely going to get too annoying to continue watching. It’s so easy nowadays, with the myriad streaming choices we all have, to just cut and run, click on something else, and sample that for three minutes. It’s like the royal family having 500 exquisite gustatory choices, prepared by the royal chef and kitchen staff, to nibble on at all times, which can quickly lead to world-weariness, ingratitude, and entitlement. Anything that doesn’t immediately deliver a happy taste experience will get spit out.
Why It’s Worth a Watch
Carey and Simon’s relationship is wonderful—two people who enjoy profanity immensely; who’ve made a pact to curb their vulgarity as preparation for becoming parents. Then there’s the cutely awkward courtship between Owen (who looks like Dane DeHaan’s twin) and Carey—two kind souls who despise secrets despite the fact that she’s carrying a big one herself, which she doesn’t even really understand.
The payoff, or the moral of the story, is to witness how both Simon and Carey are caretaking and manipulating: him not admitting he’s dying, and her not admitting she’s allowed herself a crush due to Simon’s codependently caretaking her feelings and her interpreting it all to mean he must be cheating.
Can “The Swearing Jar” be called uplifting? Clearly it’s “bittersweet.” What’s the takeaway? To have a look at how when they don’t have some overarching, spiritual context, people try to reconcile death; how they cope, heal, and find happiness again. Or perhaps a better metaphor is when they don’t have a magic bat of boundless horizons and spiritual explanations with which to smack the curveballs of life and hit home runs.
“The Swearing Jar” is a truth and lies sandwich. One the one side is Adams; he’s great at depicting a man who can lie to himself for only so long about his mortality before it comes flooding back. In the middle is Smith as the guitar player, who’s a sweet, near Tourette syndrome level truth-teller, along with the great but somewhat miscast Kathleen Turner (“Romancing the Stone,” “War of the Roses”) as Adam’s mother who does a good job of unflinching truth-trumpeting. And the other piece of bread sandwiching these two truth-tellers is Clemens as the confused Carey. She’s the film’s heart and soul, who via stellar acting and singing, helps us all try to make sense of the unknown.
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