"Hysteria"
The premise of Hysteria sounded
pretty funny to me. I was lead to believe that this was going to be a
film about the invention of the first electric vibrator. To my surprise
and great disappoint the film touches on that subject matter only but for a
brief ten minute sequence. I got the feeling that the screenwriters came
up with that humorous portion first and then realized that they needed to build
characters and plot around that concept. The end result of this 100 minute
feature is quite a mess. I felt unfulfilled having just watched something
that should have taken advantage of such a humorous idea. Instead the film came off as a complete waste
of time.
In late 1800's London Dr. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) has just been fired from his position at a
local hospital because he was of the rare breed of doctor who believed in the
concept of germs. After several rejections from other medical
institutions he is finally hired on as an assistant to Dr. Robert Dalrymple
(Jonathan Pryce.) Dr. Dalrymple is in the business of treating women who
suffer from hysteria. The explanation I got from this film about the illness
of hysteria is that it makes women all hot and bothered because they are
feeling sexually repressed in their boring everyday lives while they sit around
at home. Have no fear; the cure is physical stimulation to the female
genitalia that can only be administered from a doctor with the steadiest of
hands. It's hard to believe that back then there was a procedure commonly practiced on women
without the notion of what was being performed on them was actually considered the least bit
sexually intrusive and done purely for pleasure.
Dr. Dalrymple has two
lovely daughters, Emily (Felicity Jones) and Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who
catches the eye of Granville. Emily is much more reserved and tends to take
after her father, while Charlotte is a real wild child. She is of the free
thinking, progressive, feminist types. Charlotte works at a shelter/school
for women and children of the lower class. A kind of forbidden love is
formed between her and Granville. Can the two put their societal ideals
aside so that their true can blossom?
Whoops, I forgot to mention the
part about the invention of the personal electric massager. That's
because the film almost forgets to mention that part too. Hysteria doesn't
address the "conflict" until about the one hour mark.
Everything leading up to that aforementioned ten minutes is a ton of
unnecessary character development between Dancy's and Gyllenhaal's
characters. Characters that we don't seem to care about at all take up
far too much time. "When are they going to get to vibrators," I
kept thinking to myself. I wanted this film to start moving along.
After a few chuckles from the
stimulating scenes showing us the creation of device that Granville and his
friend (Rupert Everett) invent, it's then quickly back to the Charlotte dreck
which consumes the rest of the film. There is a big difference between
slow films and boring films. I don't have a problem with slow films.
Patience is a virtue which in turn pays off sometimes in slow films. It's
when a film becomes boring and neither the characters nor the plot are
progressed; that's when I start constantly looking at my wrist watch. None of
the scenes carry any sort of interest or weight to them. The plot and
characters meander about giving us the impression that what we're watching is
supposed to be entertaining and engaging. Seriously though, nothing
happens in this film.
Hysteria feels like it
was originally a sketch on Saturday Night Live
and then unfortunately turned into a feature length film. The premise is
almost entirely squandered. Gyllenhaal is completely miscast and does a
poor English accent against an entirely British cast. It makes me think
that the studio needed her as star power to sell this movie to American
audiences. I wouldn't say that this is a completely unwatchable film
considering there are worse pieces of cinema out there. It's just
immensely disappointing. One of the opening shots of the film is a
character stepping in a pile of horse feces. That is certainly how I felt
while watching Hysteria, unable
to scrape it from the sole of my shoe.
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