"The Swearing Jar" is about honesty, secrets and lies, and losing and finding love. The swearing jar itself is what's known in cinema as a GIMMICK, namely, a device used to attract attention that isn't really crucial to the plot. Carey (Adelaide Clemens) starts a swearing jar to encourage herself and author husband Simon (Patrick J. Adams) not to swear as part of their effort to clean up their acts in order to be good role models for the child who is on the way.
I find that very few films are worth more than one viewing, but I must admit that "The Swearing Jar"
may be worth more than one viewing because the second time through you notice a lot of clues and foreshadowing that didn't register the first time. It also sheds light on the structure of the film, which is not immediately apparent on first viewing. The film is adapted by Kate Hewlett from her musical play of the same name. The film shifts back and forth between an evening of songs - which chronologically is at the end of the film - and the story framed by the songs. Music teacher and songwriter Carey performs her own songs to an audience of family and friends who have gathered for a posthumous birthday celebration for Simon. The songs, which are actually pretty good (the film's soundtrack has been released), illustrate important events in her relationship with Simon.
The usual story of someone who loses a spouse to death at a young age is that eventually they meet someone else and remarry. "The Swearing Jar" is different because Carey actually meets her new love, Owen, while she is still happily married to Simon. Despite her commitment to her marriage and her (completely wrong) promise to Simon that she will never love anyone else, she and Owen feel a powerful attraction to each other, which Carey destroys - temporarily, at any rate - by confessing to Owen that she is married and pregnant.
Carey is a lucky woman, in a way: How many people can lose one love but have the next one already waiting in the wings and ready to go? The story is more complicated than that, but those are the basics.
So what is the plot's fundamental flaw? The flaw is that Simon's death - which is the crucial plot element - is contrived. In real life, it would almost certainly not have happened. Simon is diagnosed with a "berry aneurysm," a colloquial term for a saccular cerebral aneurysm. He is just about to tell Carey, but upon learning that Carey is pregnant, he decides to keep it to himself. The aneurysm is treated as an incurable condition that inevitably causes death. This is not true. The vast majority of berry aneurysms are small and cause no symptoms at all. People usually die WITH, not FROM, berry aneurysms. And of those aneurysms that do cause symptoms or are life-threatening, 80% are curable with "clipping" or "coiling." The plot might have been salvaged if somewhere along the line, someone said that the aneurysm was "inoperable" or "unresectable." Even that would be stretching it, because these days, an aneurysm that can't be cured is extremely rare. So if you can suspend disbelief enough to buy the story that Simon's death is inevitable, you can enjoy this film.
Despite the problems of plot discussed above, the film's dialogue is refreshingly intelligent and truly funny. Adelaide Clemens has a gift of being natural and convincing. She says her lines with an effortless quality that makes them sounds natural. Patrick J. Adams as Simon is supposed to be a sympathetic character, but there is a "bad boy" vibe that gets in the way. Douglas Smith as Owen has terrific chemistry with Clemens. He is in serious need of a good haircut, but maybe the bad hair is intended to be part of his character's persona.
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