nomadreader

Hysteria  by Tanya Wexler I really wanted to love this film. Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal in a historic feminist comedy? It should be right up my alley. The tone of the film overall is somewhat bizarre. At times it feels like a comedy, but at times it was much more serious. The actors often seemed as though they were acting in different films. Ultimately, I don't think the film's direction was clear enough. I've seen Sarah Ruhl's fabulous play In the Next Room , which also focuses on the invention of the vibrator, and perhaps the excellence of that play negatively impacted my enjoyment of Hysteria . There were some wonderful moments in this film, but overall, I was pretty disappointed this story and this cast only made a mediocre film. Rating: 3 out of 5 Availability: dvd Lee Daniels' The Butler by Lee Daniels Based very loosely on the true story of an African-American butler who served from Eisenhower to Reagan and lived to see Obama's presidenc...