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Starring: Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Felicity Jones, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett
Director: Tanya Wexler
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: C+
I'm still a bit undecided about this movie. On the one hand, I love Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal and probably always will. On the other hand... I had high expectations for Hysteria and it failed to deliver.
Hysteria follows Doctor Mortimer Granville (Dancy), a modern thinking doctor living in Victorian London. His attempts to modernize his places of work has had highly negative results - mainly a high job turnover. Following his latest firing Mortimer gets a job at the practice of Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Pryce), who specializes in the women's disorder known as hysteria, which he treats through stimulation of the female sex organ. While working for Dr. Dalrymple Mortimer meets his two daughters; the intelligent and subdued Emily (Jones), who Mortimer strikes up a fancy for, and the passionate, hot-headed Charlotte (Gyllenhaal), who Mortimer (and her father) disapproves of. Then Mortimer begins to get a case of carpal tunnel syndrome, altering everything.
To start, I loved the cast, from the leads Dancy and Gyllenhaal, to the supporting actors. They each had a well defined role that they played rather perfectly. I even have to give props to Gyllenhaal for her accent - while it wasn't a perfect British accent it was far from being one of the worst fake accents in a movie. That being said though, I don't think Dancy or Gyllenhaal really stepped out of their comfort zones here. Both were playing roles that I felt like I've seen them do before and while that's acceptable in some actors, and even expected at times, I do have higher expectations for them. Both are great actors who should be challenging themselves. Hysteria doesn't do this.
The thing that I disliked most about this movie, however, was that it didn't seem to know if it wanted to be a period piece of a romantic comedy - and ended up being too much of the latter. I felt like this could have been a really smart movie, but it just wanted to go for the obvious jokes. Seriously, watching Hugh Dancy masturbate old women is only funny for so long.
Director: Tanya Wexler
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: C+
I'm still a bit undecided about this movie. On the one hand, I love Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal and probably always will. On the other hand... I had high expectations for Hysteria and it failed to deliver.
Hysteria follows Doctor Mortimer Granville (Dancy), a modern thinking doctor living in Victorian London. His attempts to modernize his places of work has had highly negative results - mainly a high job turnover. Following his latest firing Mortimer gets a job at the practice of Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Pryce), who specializes in the women's disorder known as hysteria, which he treats through stimulation of the female sex organ. While working for Dr. Dalrymple Mortimer meets his two daughters; the intelligent and subdued Emily (Jones), who Mortimer strikes up a fancy for, and the passionate, hot-headed Charlotte (Gyllenhaal), who Mortimer (and her father) disapproves of. Then Mortimer begins to get a case of carpal tunnel syndrome, altering everything.
To start, I loved the cast, from the leads Dancy and Gyllenhaal, to the supporting actors. They each had a well defined role that they played rather perfectly. I even have to give props to Gyllenhaal for her accent - while it wasn't a perfect British accent it was far from being one of the worst fake accents in a movie. That being said though, I don't think Dancy or Gyllenhaal really stepped out of their comfort zones here. Both were playing roles that I felt like I've seen them do before and while that's acceptable in some actors, and even expected at times, I do have higher expectations for them. Both are great actors who should be challenging themselves. Hysteria doesn't do this.
The thing that I disliked most about this movie, however, was that it didn't seem to know if it wanted to be a period piece of a romantic comedy - and ended up being too much of the latter. I felt like this could have been a really smart movie, but it just wanted to go for the obvious jokes. Seriously, watching Hugh Dancy masturbate old women is only funny for so long.
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