Beating Ken Burns to the punch, the forthcoming Hysteria will delve into the history of the vibrator, and how it evolved from a steam-powered massager meant to shake the crazy right out of emotional, irritable women into the sleek sex toy and Katherine Heigl comic prop we all know and giggle about. Hysteria is being described as a “Victorian-era romantic comedy,” probably because Rupert Everett and Hugh Dancy are both in it and that’s a perfect mash-up of their respective chosen genres, and presumably because recently signed co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal falls in love with one of them. Or given the subject matter (and that Gyllenhaal is no stranger to movie masturbation scenes, as anyone who's seen Secretary can attest), she possibly learns to “love herself.” What do we know?
All we do know is that Gyllenhaal plays the daughter of the London doctor portrayed by Jonathan Pryce, who invents the vibrator with the help of Dancy’s character, while Everett just sort of hangs around as Dancy’s best friend. Also, that everyone (including Variety) is already calling this that "vibrator comedy.” By the way, have you noticed that they just advertise vibrators on TV these days like it’s no big deal? The future is truly now.