It's 1880 London. Stress out women of all kinds are diagnosed with hysteria. The remedy is pelvic massage and the release of orgasm. Medicine still uses leeches and germs are a new concept. Dr. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) is fired from the hospital for changing with clean bandages. After many rejections, he gets a job with Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce) who treats only women. Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is his rebellious suffragette daughter and Emily (Felicity Jones) is the obedient one who studies phrenology. The constant 'treatments' are wearing out Mortimer's hand. His gentleman inventor flatmate Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett) helps develop a vibrator for the work.The subject matter is titillating amusement. Everybody plays it straight with a smile. It's light fun with a bit of serious issue. It's not big laughs but it's an enjoyable little rom-com. They all play the roles great especially Gyllenhaal's firecracker act.

Few era comedies mood achieve high standards today, this is one of those. Even funnier is the fact that the story is based on real events, with a very decent staging era with characters that his spirit ahead of his era at times seem somewhat anachronistic, however the highlight of the movie focuses on the well done humor that reflected situations that marked a revolution at early the role of women in the nineteenth century before Billie Jean King.Putting together a frustrated doctor, the industrial revolution, Maggie Gyllenhaal (more like a Lisa Simpson adult) sexual repression and ultraconservative British are the perfect recipe for the invention of a device "doctor" used to cure the "disease" of hysteria.

in late 1800s London is the center of this movie. It basically is a film about the invention of the vibrator. I don't know how much of it is true, but it was comical when all these old ladies go in for treatment for their hysteria. The story is about Dr. Granville whom joins the practice of Dr. Dalrymple in the treatment of hysteria. It seems half the female population is affected with it. So Granville sits in a session where we see the Dalrymple put a curtain over a woman's lower regions, oil up his hands, and stimulate. And to amazement, the women are very pleased with this. So Granville makes money, gets to help people and is intrigued by both Dalrmple's daughters, especially the independent one, Charolette. Granville has so many patients, his hand starts to hurt and he teams up with a doctor friend and they come up with a machine to stimulate. It starts out as a feather duster, then becomes more refined.FINAL VERDICT: This was in interesting film and was funny sometimes. Worth checking out.

I barely knew or expected anything when I sat down to see this movie. I must say I was very surprised. The main role is played perfectly, and the characters optimism and curiosity is so enjoyable that you will want to see more of the movie, just for this single reason. All the characters are very authentic and believable and you really feel like you're watching a real story unfold before you. The movie itself has plenty of surprises of it own and you never fully know what is going to happen next. The best thing about the movie however, is all the funny scenes. From the main character to the laughs, the challenging of a taboo and the break between old English traditions and the new generation is as refreshing as watching a lucky-go-happy movie.