Director: Tania Wexler
Cast: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Felicity Jones, Rupert Everett, Jonathan Pryce.
Rating: (M)
3 stars (out of 5)
Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) is an idealistic young doctor who falls into a job working for Dr Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce) in an exclusive clinic treating women suffering from "hysteria".
It was common for medical journals of the day to describe symptoms of female hysteria as including sexual desire, faintness, insomnia and irritability. It was then amusingly treated by physicians practised in the techniques of genital stimulation, the folly of which is ripe for some cheeky chortles. But the very real problem facing Dr Granville is far from funny, as a debilitating hand injury threatens to derail his career.
This is where the accuracy of the details that led to Granville's invention, and the film narrative, diverge.
To stretch out the risqué scenario into a feature-length film, Hysteria focuses on Granville's dilemma in trying to manage his arranged marriage to Dalrymple's youngest daughter Emily (Felicity Jones), while fending off the rambunctious feminist jibes from his oldest daughter Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal).
Director Tanya Wexler harnesses just enough of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge factor to make Hysteria an entertaining romp, without sacrificing too many historical facts.
Best thing: Maggie's feminist rabble-rousing.
Worst thing: Never knowing where the factual history stops, and the rom-com starts.
- Mark Orton
