Having received a warm reception from audiences last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, director Tanya Wexler’s Hysteria, a droll, funny affair detailing the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England by a young doctor, finally opens in Milwaukee-area theaters today.
Set in 1880s London, Hysteria casts Hugh Dancy (Our Idiot Brother and Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Mortimer Granville, the aforementioned doctor who has grown increasingly frustrated with the antiquated procedures and medical treatments he’s forced to follow and administer. As a result, Mortimer bounces from one unfulfilling job to the next as he verbally crosses swords with any number of veteran doctors and superiors who feel no need to keep up with the times or implement new medical techniques.
Eventually he’s offered a position at the female-centric practice of Dr. Robert Dalrymple (a game Jonathan Pryce), who theorizes that roughly half the women in London are afflicted with anxieties and afflictions, or “hysteria,” a once-widely recognized medical condition specifically subscribed to women, regardless of age, that manifested in a variety of ways and forms.
The industrious Dr. Dalrymple specializes in curing women of their hysteria by administering what can best be described as a series of very intimate hand massages resulting in happy endings (or paroxysms, as they are referred to here) designed to rid the ladies of what ills them. With retirement in the offing, Dalrymple hopes that not only will Mortimer be a hit with his all-female clientele, but that he’ll also make a good doctor’s wife out of his dutiful youngest daughter Emily (Like Crazy’s Felicity Jones).
Dalrymple’s eldest daughter, Charlotte (a sublime Maggie Gyllenhaal of Secretary and Crazy Heart) is a committed feminist who champions a host of causes, including a financially strapped women’s shelter that’s the feather in her rebellious cap. When she proves too much for her father to handle, she strikes a chord with Mortimer. Clearly they are made for one another but both are otherwise engaged, she with her convictions, and he with her younger sister.
When the demands of work prove too much for Mortimer’s hands, leading to his dismissal by a disappointed Dalrymple, he retreats to the abode of his generous and loyal friend Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett), whose got an interest in all things and inventions electric. In a bit of divine intervention, Mortimer has a light bulb moment playing around with one of Edmund’s electronic thingamajigs that serves as the prototype for a stimulation device that he hopes will achieve the same aim as manually applied massage minus any physical discomfort to the giver, and hopefully the receiver.
Wexler’s handsomely manicured film is both informative and entertaining, and features two standout turns from Gyllenhaal and Everett, the latter hasn’t been this enjoyable onscreen since his breakout performance in 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding.
Dancy couldn’t be more at home in the period garb and is a choice straight man for Gyllenhaal to bounce Charlotte’s spirited preaching and proselytizing off of (which never seem forced) and for Everett to regale him with Edmund’s wry observations and advice.
Sheridan Smith is a real cut-up as a former prostitute turned saucy housekeeper who gets the call to test drive Mortimer’s stimulation invention.
The script, written by Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer, could have done without an unnecessary subplot detailing legal woes that Charlotte faces, and instead further explored the loving, yet fractured relationship between Charlotte and her father whose rather arch (at times) disapproval of her charitable work seemingly flies in the face of his own predilection for wanting to lend a helping hand to those, of the female persuasion, in need. Pun intended.
Grade: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Stars: Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jonathan Pryce, Felicity Jones, Ashley Jensen, Sheridan Smith, Gemma Jones, Georgie Glen, Kim Criswell, Anna Chancellor and Rupert Everett
Directed By: Tanya Wexler
Screenplay By: Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer
Story By: Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer
Produced By: Sarah Curtis, Judy Cairo and Tracey Becker
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Rating: R, for sexual content.
Running Time: Approximately 95 minutes
Website: www.hysteriathefilm.com
Budget: N/A
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Period/Romance
Release Date: June 8, 2012
