About halfway through this tale it was shaping up to be this year’s King’s Speech. Handsomely mounted, superbly acted, with immaculate period details and a fascinating central idea, it really held the attention. Then, tragically, it decides to veer off into a drippy love story which is as predictable as it is dull, and the momentum is totally lost. Sad, as this could have been a real stayer.
Just like the King’s Speech it takes a footnote in history and opens it out into a quite fascinating story. In this case it’s the accidental invention of the vibrator. Set in 1880, Doctor Mortimer Granville (Dancy) is a forward-thinking medical man battling against old prejudices and quacks his opening encounter sees him do battle with a doctor who still believes leeches hold the cure for everything and thinks germs are an invention.
Granville keeps getting sacked and eventually ends up getting a job as the assistant to Doctor Dalrymple (Pryce), who is treating the female condition of hysteria’ by, erm, massaging their pelvic region.
Handsome Granville soon has the appointment book full, as middle-class women have their frustrations released by his dextrous fingers. Dalrymple is so impressed he wants Granville to be his partner perhaps his son in law, as he has two daughters. Emily (Felicity Jones) seems the perfect fit pretty, demure and sensible while Charlotte (Gyllenhaal) seems far too much of a firebrand, running a local centre for the poor and campaigning for the Suffragettes.
However Granville’s world falls apart when he gets RSI in his hand, and is no longer able to help his patients. Also he seems more interested in Charlotte even though he has now proposed to Emily. His old room-mate, Smythe (Everett), comes to the rescue by putting him up, and what are those toys Smythe keeps playing with using this new-fangled electricity nonsense?
It’s a great set-up, with themes such as just how useless the medical profession was in the 1880s and how the world and women’s place in it was changing so rapidly. It’s therefore so tantalising that the film shifts tone so dramatically halfway through, and it becomes more about Granville’s romance with the fiery Charlotte. She is a totally cardboard character, the argumentative Suffragette with sleeves rolled up helping out grubby-faced London urchins, but if that wasn’t tame enough Maggie Gyllenhaal’s performance writes if off completely. Surrounded by top British talent Jonathan Pryce is especially good as the bonkers Dalrymple she seems to be acting in a different film, almost as if intimidated by the talent surrounding her.
Even Sheridan Smith and Ashley Jensen make much more of an impact in tiny roles, and Gyllenhaal’s trial at the end is pure soap opera. A shame, as it could have been so much more than this.
Overall verdict: Handsomely mounted period costume drama about a fascinating moment in history, spoiled by a drippy second half and Gyllenhaal’s mannered performance.
Reviewer: Mike Martin