Romantic comedy and true story about how Dr. Mortimer Granville invented the world's first electromechanical vibrator in 1880 Britain as a cure for female hysteria.
Young physician Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy, Martha Marcy May Marlene) is too forward-thinking for the medical orthodoxy, and ends up being kicked out of hospital work. Granville finds himself in the employ of Dr. Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce, Evita), a specialist who takes a hands-on approach to 'curing' his patients of severe hysterical symptoms such as unhappiness and boredom.
Unsurprisingly Dalrymple's proto-feminist daughter Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Secretary) rubbishes the very idea of hysteria, along with most 19th Century ideas about women. Her free-thinking ways challenge and appeal to Granville, who's starting to wonder why he's putting such a strain on his wrist applying the therapeutical procedures. One day he makes a chance discovery thanks to budding electrical inventor Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett, My Best Friend's Wedding), and hey, presto - good vibrations.
Dancy manages a few sly moments, and Everett is as ever a scene-stealer, if barely recognizable under a beard and altered features, and with a raspy voice. But the estimable Pryce and Jones are wasted, along with many other fine thesps, while Gyllenhaal works too gratingly hard in an already strained role.
Full reviewThere's nothing strictly wrong with any of this, except for the fact that even a buttoned-down period piece like 'Topsy-Turvy' feels sexier.
Full reviewThe performances are spot on, and I especially like the spunky Gyllenhaal, who with this film and the underrated "Secretary" (2002), has built up a nice sideline in sexual exploration.
Full review
Hysteria, is a pleasurable diversion, even if it could have used a touch more spark in the writing.
Full review
Lightly humorous, well performed and not nearly as smutty as you might imagine. The earth may not move, but there are tingles of pleasure along the way.
Full review
Though the film is a fairly plastic British period piece with all the intimacy of a Hitachi Wand, the script captures some delicate and intelligent facets of a tensely conflicted era.
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