Hysteria: movie review
The opening credits for the new comedy 鈥淗ysteria,鈥� starring Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal, informs us that 鈥渢his story is based on true events. Really.鈥� Really? The story is about how the vibrator was accidentally invented back in the prudish days of Victorian England.
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Dancy鈥檚 Dr. Mortimer Granville has forward-looking ideas about medicine 鈥� no leeches, no bleeding of his patients 鈥� that consistenly get him into trouble. Needing a job, he winds up as the assistant to Dr. Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce, at his most archly comic), who specializes in treating female 鈥渉ysteria鈥� by manually releasing their 鈥渘ervous tension.鈥� He also has two daughters, the prim and marriageable Emily (Felicity Jones) and the abrasive suffragette Charlotte (Gyllenahaal). Guess who Mortimer falls for?
When Mortimer鈥檚 wealthy, rakish inventor friend Edmund (a very funny Rupert Everett) comes up with the idea for the vibrator, Dalrymple鈥檚 practice takes off. Director Tanya Wexler and her screenwriters, Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer, are more at home with sexual shenanigans than suffragette posturings. It鈥檚 as if they felt they had to work all that socially conscious stuff into the mix in order to justify the risqu茅 humor. Even the humor is played too broadly 鈥� another notch and we鈥檇 be in 鈥�Monty Python鈥� territory, though not half as witty.
Perhaps the funniest thing about 鈥淗ysteria鈥� is Gyllenhaal鈥檚 comment at a press conference for it at last year鈥檚 Toronto Film Festival. She called it 鈥渢he feel-good film of the year.鈥� Grade: C+ (Rated R for sexual content.)
