HYSTERIA

It’s written for girls, by a team of two that’s 50% girl, and directed by Tanya Wexler (who is one-hundred percent girl), but Sony Pictures Classics’ Hysteria, out in May, will please males and females alike. Wexler’s Toronto Film Festival premiere details the surprisingly scientific invention of the vibrator, credited to Joseph Mortimer Granville as a cure for “female hysteria” in the late 1800s. The film, tossed into the genre of a romantic comedy, follows the story of a young Granville (Hugh Dancy) who, as an apprentice to Dr. Robert Dalrymple in London (Jonathan Pryce), seeks to a find a “proper way to attend” to the women who come to the practice for “pelvic massages.” Rather than mimic the French (who use their tongues, one character suggests), Granville devises an electronically-powered device to achieve the work that until then belonged to his and Dr. Dalrymple’s hands. While that plot on its own is enough to ensure hilarity, a potential love interest between Granville and the doctor’s daughter, Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal), adds a salacious twist.