![]() ![]() As a leading specialist in the treatment of hysteria, Granville is asked to testify. Charlotte will stop at nothing to keep her settlement house running, up to and including assault on a bothersome policeman.Īrrested and put on trial, Charlotte's only chance to stay out of prison is a diagnosis of severe hysteria, which would cause her to be sent to a mental institution instead. But every encounter with the vexingly outspoken Charlotte challenges his complacency and reawakens his physician's idealism. Once again, Granville is installed as Emily's fiance and Dalrymple's heir-apparent. Granville and Smythe convince Dalrymple to try out the innovation on his patients, with spectacular results. A few simple adjustments, a bit of experimentation, and the world's first electric vibrating massager is created. Absent-mindedly handling the duster, Granville is struck by how pleasurable the sensation of the machine's steady vibration feels in his hand, and a brilliant idea takes hold. Smythe has been tinkering with an invention of his own, an electric feather-duster powered by a rumbling electic generator installed in his parlor. ![]() JOHN SMYTHE (Rupert Everett), whose passion is newfangled technology (he has a telephone installed before Buckingham Palace does). Granville seeks refuge with his lifelong friend, the eccentric and wealthy EDMUND St. He loses his job and, with it, his fiancee. Granville's dextrous massage therapy, which requires "steady, constant pressure," has caused what in the present day would be call "repetitive stress syndrome." Granville finds himself unable to perform his duties satisfactorily. Just as Granville's life seems to be settling into prosperity and security, engaged to Emily with the prospect of partnership in Dalrymple's lucrative practice, his hopes are dashed by an affliction of his own: hand cramps. They snipe at each others' views, but he earns her grudging respect when he treats a poor settlement house woman with a broken ankle. Dalrymple is dismayed by Charlotte's progressive views and lower-class associations Charlotte is scornful of her father's medical practice that profits from, as she sees it, the imaginary problems of affluent women.Īlthough Granville is somewhat shocked by Charlotte's lack of propriety, he feels kinship with her conviction to help those in need. And yet, she works long and hard herself, running a settlement house for poor women and children in London's East End, dashing around London on her bicycle, cajoling her disapproving father for a bit more money to keep the coal furnace running and the schoolroom open. ![]() As dutiful and proper a daughter as is Emily, her elder sister CHARLOTTE (Maggie Gyllenhall) is the opposite: she's a firebrand social reformer, arguing passionately for women's rights to be educated, vote, and live independent lives unshackled by domestic drudgery. Granville's improved lot in life makes him a worthy suitor for Dalrymple's daughter EMILY (Felicity Jones), whom Granville considers "the epitome of English virtue and womanliness" with her lovely face, demure manner, and artistic and intellectual accomplishments. Dalrymple has a thriving solo practice indeed, his waiting room is overflowing with well-dressed women suffering "weeping, nymphomania, frigidity, melancholia, and anxiety" – afflictions of the female nervous system thought to stem from a disorder of the uterus known as "hysteria." Fortunately, enlightened medicine has shown that hysteria can be treated by relieving tensions within the womb, and Dalrymple's treatments are so successful that, as he explains to Granville, "another pair of hands" is his urgent need. ![]() ROBERT DALRYMPLE (Jonathan Pryce), London's leading specialist in women's medicine. Granville's fortunes change when he arrives for an interview at the well-appointed private offices of DR. While Granville preaches sanitation and germ theory, the old guard of doctors cling to leeches and hacksaws, scoff at his upstart ideas, and show him the door. MORTIMER GRANVILLE (Hugh Dancy), a dedicated and forward-thinking young doctor, is struggling to establish his career. Academy Award® nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal (CRAZY HEART, NANNY McPHEE RETURNS) and Hugh Dancy (ADAM, CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC) lead an accomplished cast in this untold tale of discovery. HYSTERIA is a lighthearted romantic comedy that tells the surprising story of the birth of the electro-mechanical vibrator at the very peak of Victorian prudishness. and accidentally electrified our love lives forever. In an age of invention, one man set out to find a medical cure for what ails women. ![]()
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