Hysteria

HYSTERIA

British film tries to by hysterical, but ends up merely light-hearted and fun

2011: BIM Distribuzione

2011, Historical Comedy, Rated PG-13

Distributed by BIM Distribuzione

          British films have a tendency to be underwhelming, despite promising premises and ideas. Remember The Iron Lady? It's okay if you don't: it's hardly memorable. It's a British biopic about Margaret Thatcher with big ideas that falls short of its intended grandeur. Hysteria doesn't depict the life of a prime minister but it does tell a story based on true events in Britain's past. What could have been an insightful look into a corrupt and demented view of women's health in the late 1800s ends up being light-hearted fun with many a playful wink at the audience.

          Hysteria is about a doctor who only wants to do good by his patients. He lives in a London populated by doctors who don't know what germs are or the importance of cleanliness in treating wounds. The doctor, Dr. Mortimer Granville, is out of work because no hospital will hire a doctor who babbles on about  tiny invisible creatures that make you sick if things aren't clean. He stumbles upon a new and innovative medical practice conducted by a Dr. Dalrymple. Dr. Dalrymple is in the business of curing "hysteria" in women all over London. Hysteria, during that time, was a fictional condition thought to be real with a list of symptoms that left nearly no woman without the condition. These women are essentially not being pleased by their husbands and are too Christian to masturbate. So the good doctor does it for them. I'm serious: that's what this movie is about. The big payoff is that this medical practice led to the invention of the vibrator. The vibrator was invented as a home-use cure for hysteria. And as the film claims at the end, the vibrator is to this the day the best selling sex toy.

         The most interesting aspect of this story is that late 19th-century doctors actually believed they were curing this illness called hysteria by massaging women's genitals. It's really gross and odd that what doctors were doing back then was considered science but that's the way it was. The film tries to ignore these more jarring ideas by making it light-hearted and more a film about the emergence of women's rights shortly after this time period. On that front the film is excellent. There is a playful exuberance about women's rights in the time period: there's a sort of acknowledgement that they were achieved that the actors use to make the film more cheeky and fun. Maggie Gylenhaal plays the daughter of Dr. Palrymple and love interest of Mortimer. She defies her father by standing up against this false illness called hysteria. As the film begins it is wholly concerned with this idea of hysteria and developing characters, but morphs into a courtroom fight for rights. This was both good and bad. The tone of the film changed slightly but it wasn't enough to distract from the whole picture.

          I thoroughly enjoyed the love story in this film. It was not your traditional Hollywood love story. Mortimer is first enthralled by Dr. Dalrymple's other daughter because she would make the most sense to marry. But then through an awakening and realization that reason is not the be-all-end-all, he falls for Gyllenhaal's character, Charlotte. The character development and acting in this picture were perfect. All characters were written and acted wonderfully. Watching this film is a joy: it never falters in its playful attitude and so never becomes boring. Also, it can be very funny. Mortimer has a friend, played by the great Rupert Everett, who is also toying with an invention: the telephone. Every scene involving him on his new telephone was hysterical. And of course, the scenes in which women are being "cured" by the good doctor are absolutely ridiculous but tastefully so.

          Overall this film feels like it could have been more dynamic, more insightful, but ends up being a mere fun time at the movies instead. As a historical document I'm not sure just how accurate it is, but it sheds light on the beginning of something taboo in our society. It's a topic not normally discussed, but displayed with wit and humor in Hysteria, it is a welcome surprise

           Side note: This film also works wonderfully as a story about an invention. The vibrator goes from a mere idea halfway through the film, to a mass-produced, home-use product at the very end of the film. The end credits have a great visual tour through the different models of vibrators from 1880 until today.