Hysteria: A Heartwarming Romp, With Vibrators

Vibrators. That’s right folks, vibrators. Sales records don’t lie, these devices are very near and dear to millions and millions of people’s…hearts, so it’s only natural to wonder how they came about. The recently released movie Hysteria focuses on their invention. Now I love a salacious story as much as the next person, but I found this film particularly titillating in that it didn’t go buck-wild-gonzo-crazy while discussing the subject. In fact, the filmmakers seemed to go out of their way to affect a more wholesome aspect throughout the story. Sure, there were plenty of “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” moments, but they were delivered in such a way that even your grandmother could stomach. If Marry Poppins and Charles Dickens had a sex-dungeon love child, Hysteria would be that love child.

The story starts off with Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy), a young and brilliant doctor who is sick of apprenticing under the ignorant old guard of the medical profession. His bosses continually fire him for suggesting that tiny creatures called “germs” are making people sick. Instead they prefer to bleed their patients with leeches and leave old bandages unchanged for weeks.

The “radical” Mortimer can’t get a job in the medical community, and so he is ecstatic when Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce) takes him on as an assistant. In his own words, Dr. Dalrymple simply doesn’t have enough hands. Mortimer is eager to begin helping the patients in Dr. Dalrymple’s successful psychology practice, until he learns that he has only been hired to “treat” women who have the “valid medical condition” of Hysteria by applying a firm, steady pressure manually to his patients “affected areas.” But seeing as this is Mortimer’s only option, he stays on. In less than a week, he has his hand constantly on ice to stave off the excruciating pain from all of the overwork it has gone through.

Peppered in among all of this is Dr. Dalrymple’s vivacious daughter Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal). She’s the polar opposite of her well-mannered sister Emily (Felicity Jones). Charlotte’s a suffragette who demands equal treatment and will not be silenced to sit quietly in a corner. She refuses to live up to the class level of her father, instead choosing to live on the verge of poverty while trying to keep afloat a clinic and school for the poor.

While Mortimer busies himself with his repetitive and painful job, certain questions suss themselves out. Will Mortimer be satisfied in Dr. Dalrymple’s superfluous practice where he must maintain a classist attitude, or will Charlotte’s honest intensity get to him? And will Charlotte survive the stifling anti-woman climate of London, or will she be trampled underfoot like so many other activists of the time? And what will become of Mortimer’s poor hand? Will it ever survive the myriad women it dutifully services? Of course these questions are answered, but what’s more important is the way these questions come about. It is a testament to the skillful interweaving of tone and of plot. Serious issues are discussed, but there’s still enough levity to justify the fact that this is a silly little film about the history surrounding the invention of the world’s most popular sex toy.

The acting in this film is excellent, and so must be mentioned. Jonathan Pryce expertly blends silly father/doctor and jerky classist villain. And the characters that Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal play seem to have been made for each other. Gyllenhaal shines with dewy idealism while Dancy is ever the nervously adorable man of accomplishment—it’s a wonder it took Hollywood this long to figure out he’s good for a leading romantic role. And Rupert Everett is wonderful as the rich and eccentric Edmund. More please, definitely more.

This film is absolutely watchable. It’s a good study in plotting, in marrying message with story, in artfully manipulating tone, in creating memorable characters within a large cast—and it is also simply enjoyable. I'm sure this sounds trite, but it really does have classic styling with modern sensibilities. Don't miss this one, catch it in theaters.