Leave it to the British to take a subject that would absolutely horrify studio executives in America and turn it into a comedy starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy. Hysteria is about how a doctor named Mortimer Granville (Dancy) revolutionized the way we view sex by inventing the vibrator in order to cure female hysteria. This movie takes the normally buttoned-up Victorian setting and injects it with a layer of raunchiness and filth that is delightfully offset by the dry wit that fills every second of footage.
Unlike previous movies about the history of sex, like Kinsey, Hysteria seems to downplay the more vulgar elements of the story and highlights the offbeat nature of the process behind the invention of such a lurid item. It's genuinely hilarious to see that the men behind the vibrator were nothing more than bumbling doctors blowing out generators and finding new purposes for feather dusters.
Hysteria opens in limited release on May 18.
[via Yahoo Movies]
Trailer Park: Find Out How The Vibrator Was Invented In "Hysteria"
The mystery behind one of society's most popular inventions is solved.
Apr 14, 2012
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