Hysteria

Overview

When you think of vibrators, 'charming' probably isn't the first word that comes to mind. It may not even feature in the top hundred. In fact, 'charming' has probably never been used in that context at all, yet Tanya Wexler's film about the invention of the vibrator is precisely that: charming.

Set in 1880, it follows the young Doctor Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) and his unsuccessful attempts to modernise medicine against ardent resistance from the old establishment. This was, after all, Victorian England — an era when bacteria were still just theoretical, phrenology was well-respected, and women were considered neither capable of, nor interested in, sexual gratification.

Shunned by the profession, Granville ends up in the employ of Dr Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), an elderly physician using the unlikely method of clitoral stimulation to 'treat' women of their so-called 'hysteria'. Reeking of misogyny, hysteria was the convenient diagnostic catch-all for every unsightly or erratic female act, be it the mildest melancholia or the most extreme necrophilia. Unsurprisingly, Dalrymple's niche practice soon grows in popularity as the duo unwittingly perfect their 'treatment', and it's necessity rather than ingenuity that drives Granville to invent what will eventually become the world's bestselling sex toy.

Hysteria is all tremendously light fare, playing for laughs whenever possible and leaving it entirely up to Maggie Gyllenhaal's character, Charlotte (Dalrymple's rebellious and progressive daughter), to address issues of class disparity, sexual inequality, and the overall prudishness that defined the time. Rupert Everett plays a wonderful supporting role as Granville's eccentric and wealthy benefactor, and Wexler does a wonderful job of keeping the subject matter amusing instead of awkward. It's a remarkable (and true) period piece played out with the cheekiness and charm of an Oscar Wilde play. So much so that you could take your mum along and not cringe even once.