Hysteria

It’s safe to say, regardless of quality, that nobody watching Hysteria will get the same level of pleasure as some of the characters in the film itself.

The tame Victorian-era British comedy is based on the true-life story of Mortimer Granville, the young doctor who is credited with inventing the vibrator in the name of honest medicine.

Discussion of the subject matter invites all manner of naughty innuendo. Fortunately, the film treats it mostly with a comic tone, although the screenplay’s lack of focus makes the overall product far less stimulating.

Hugh Dancy (Confessions of a Shopaholic) stars a Granville, a progressive doctor in 1880s London who tries to establish his practice as the associate to Dr. Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), who specializes in the treatment of female hysteria, a common diagnosis among middle-aged women at the time.

Granville learns Dalrymple’s methods of “pelvic massage” to cure his patients through inducing paroxysms — “it’s a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time,” he says of his arousal technique — only to find that the increased workload gives Granville hand cramps.

So he crafts a prototype for an electromechanical device to do the work for him, allowing him to satisfy more patients. Meanwhile, he becomes engaged to Dalrymple’s youngest daughter (Felicity Jones).

Less interesting are the exploits of his other daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a smart and outspoken social crusader who operates a homeless shelter of sorts that runs out of funding, prompting Granville to help the cause.

The film, directed by Tanya Wexler (Finding North), is at its most playful and charming when it offers a lighthearted examination of medical science at the time. Obviously, Granville would probably shutter at the evolution and popularity of his invention today, and its intended use that has nothing to do with medicine.

Dancy is affable enough in a performance that recalls a young Hugh Grant. Many of the best comic lines come from the supporting cast, including Rupert Everett as Granville’s inventor confidante and the terrific Malcolm Rennie as his somewhat senile father.

The script obviously takes some dramatic liberties with Granville’s story, which might have been more compelling told in non-fiction form. Instead, the intriguing premise is squandered amid a series of feel-good, final-act feminist contrivances. By that time, most of the good vibrations have been tossed out the window.

Rated R, 95 minutes.