MOVIE WEEKEND: HYSTERIA

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

The Hurricane recommended this movie to me, and now I recommend it to you. It's Hysteria, released in 2011 and available on DVD.

It seems half the ladies in Victorian London suffer from hysteria, a problem associated with the uterus.

Mrs. Bellamy: I truly don't even know why I'm here, doctor. 
[pen scraping] 
Mrs. Bellamy: Well, of course it's difficult running a large household by oneself. And raising four children is exacting, but they're wonderful, wonderful children. And my husband, he's a good man. A very hard worker. Um... Ahem. Well, there is just one thing. Sometimes at night, when he comes to me, I imagine myself splitting his fat bald head with a great large ax.

Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce) has built quite a practice by relieving the women of their hysteria through vulvar manipulation that brings on "paroxysms." Dr. Dalrymple is so successful at pleasing the women and thus releasing their nervousness and negative feelings, that he hires a doctor to work with him. This handsome young fellow, Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy), is so successful at pleasuring his patients that he can't keep up with them. Overloaded with work, he can no longer perform the task at hand and is fired by Dr. Dalrymple.

However, Dr. Granville has a friend, Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett), a wealthy playboy who enjoys experimenting with electricity. Soon, St. John-Smythe and Granville develop a plan to put electricity to work to reduce the women's distress.

Edmund St. John-Smythe: [brainstorming] The Rubby-Nubby. 
Mortimer Granville: The Vibratorium. 
Edmund St. John-Smythe: The Jiggly-Wiggly? 
Mortimer Granville: Paroxysmator. 
Edmund St. John-Smythe: Oh, the Sorcerer's Apprentice. 
Mortimer Granville: The Excitetator? 
Edmund St. John-Smythe: Mr. Wobbly. 
Mortimer Granville: Oh, please. 
Edmund St. John-Smythe: What about, The Squealer? 

The rest, as they say, is history. Supposedly this movie is based on a true story. I don't think I want to know if it's true or not. I just want to enjoy it. 

I must also mention the performance of Maggie Gyllenhaal as Dr. Dalrymple's daughter, Charlotte, who volunteers at an East End settlement house, helping the poor and delivering babies, much to the dismay of her father, who wants her to spend her days as her sister Emily (Felicity Jones) does -- playing Chopin and acting in a pleasing manner as "the angel of the house," a very important function of the Victorian woman. Emily also engages in the practice of phrenology, which leads me to the question: Does anyone know what phrenology is? No fair Googling it. I learned about it in a class on the history of the English novel.

At any head, I love Maggie Gyllenhaal, and I love the character of Charlotte.

Hysteria has The Janie Junebug Highest Seal of Approval. It's very funny and not vulgar. However, it's not for children unless you want to be asked some very-difficult-to answer questions.

Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug

P.S. As some of you know, our friend Melynda no longer blogs at Crazy World. She is instead devoting herself to our good health through promoting the use of herbalife products and offering her excellent advice. You can find Mel at https://www.GoHerbalife.com/melyndafleury/en-US. Get yourself some vitamins and feel better. Try the protein shakes. They're good for you and absolutely delicious. Melynda will work with you to help you solve specific health problems and to work on weight control. About six months after I started using herbalife products I was able to give up antidepressants, and I had been on them for a number of years. I just plain feel better since Melynda taught me how to eat properly and got me taking vitamins and using organic treatments for some of my physical complaints. Melynda is not trying to take the place of a doctor. It's better to think of her as a coach. Melynda also has The Janie Junebug Highest Seal of Approval.