Hysteria (2011)

  This frothy little confection is the perfect antidote to a long, stressful week.  It has good performances but never strays too far into dramatic territory.

Dr. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) has adopted all of the most modern medical theories but finds his compatriots in 1880s London to be woefully behind the times.  He is fired subsequently from every major hospital and eventually apprentices with Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), one of the leading physicians in the field of female hysteria.  This quaint little notion encompasses every possible feeling a woman can have and chalks it up to "not enough orgasms".  Depressed?  Angry?  Sad?  Nothing some dick can't cure.  Being medical professionals, Drs. Dalrymple and Granville use manual stimulation to bring the upper class ladies of London some relief from their mental ills.  After finding himself unable to work through a legendary case of carpal tunnel, Granville turns to his schoolyard friend, Sir Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett), for some help.  Edmund is fascinated by electricity in all its many uses and is working on an electric feather duster.  Granville recognizes that this is the answer to his prayers and, lo, the vibrator is born.

Now, ostensibly, that is what this movie is about.  However, it chooses to spend the majority of the time focusing on the "I-hate-you-I-love-you" relationship between Granville and Dalrymple's oldest daughter, Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who is portrayed as a wild virago of a woman with a fierce temper who refuses to meekly submit to the staid life set out for her by her father.   Either one of these stories would have made a decent movie, but trying to combine them is like sewing the torso of one doll onto the legs of another.  You lose the sense of cohesion.

Still, it's cute and funny, and sometimes that's all you want.

On an unrelated note, this will be the final use of the Rob tag.  He and I have gone our separate ways and he has taken his server with him.  Eventually, I will have replacements for everything but until then it will just be mine and Christy's movies.