Hysteria

A hysterically funny romantic comedy that is light-heartedly inventive and does not cease to be stimulating with its untold tale.

Hysteria, set in prudish Victorian London, follows a forward thinking young doctor, Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy), struggling to establish his career, in an age when the medical establishment is caught up in the act of bleeding and leeching, when he meets Mr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce). Dalrymple is one of London’s leading doctors specialising in women’s medicine and with a waiting room full of upper-class women suffering from “hysteria” he is in need of an extra “pair of hands” to relieve them of their symptoms. Granville is taken under Dalrymple’s wing with the promise of marriage to the successful doctor’s dutiful and proper daughter Emily (Felicity Jones) and the possibility of taking over the practise one day. But just as things seem to be going well for this young doctor, Granville’s hopes are dashed by hand cramps and the meeting of unruly eldest daughter Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal).  

This uproarious satirical comedy tells the untold tale of how the first mechanical vibrator was made in the name of medical science. It would seem that it all stemmed from hand cramps. Alongside this comedic invention, made by Granville’s close friend Edmund (Rupert Everett), the film addresses more serious issues including the first movements made by women to achieve liberation and their regained control of their repressed sexuality. Charlotte, being a social reformer fighting for women’s rights and helping those less fortunate, is considered unruly because she is liberated.

But this heavy topic becomes light-hearted amongst the comedy that unfolds around it. Comedy is deceptively serious as it subverts the situation at which it laughs at. Much of the humour stems from the comments made by the men revolving around their gender assumptions and how old fashioned and absurd they sound to an audience from the 21^st Century. This humour foregrounds how far we have come as a society in the understanding of the male and female body and psyche and ensures that Hysteria is enjoyable to watch.

Despite the predictability that surrounds the narrative structure of a romantic comedy and the ending that could be considered to dampen Charlotte’s fight for women’s rights and independence, this uproarious rom-com, from director Tanya Wexler, will keep audiences entertained by the comedy that stems from such a stimulating topic.

Hysteria is hilariously funny and is a definite must-see.