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Critic Reviews

Director Tanya Wexler plays things broadly at times, but "Hysteria" has good fun with history while coming off far more wholesome than salacious.

-Tom LongFull Review

Its 95 minutes move along nicely, and Everett - languid as a cat in a sunbeam - makes his too-brief scenes into master classes of comedy.

-Moira MacDonaldFull Review

The problem with "Hysteria" is that it keeps patting itself and us on the back for knowing better.

-Ty BurrFull Review

Director Tanya Wexler struggles to let much air into what could have been a delicious, winking farce.

-Roger MooreFull Review

Hysteria never gets too preachy or ponderous, and there's something in the film to educate even the most learned viewer.

-Rene RodriguezFull Review

The movie also makes all the right noises about female sexual liberation. But its good intentions are undermined by sniggering jokes...

-Rafer GuzmanFull Review

A clever love story, an amusing comedy of manners, and a smart message movie.

-Colin CovertFull Review

Good vibrations all around.

-Steven ReaFull Review

It's happy to get the big facts broadly right, as long as it's allowed to have a little fun with the rest.

-Michael O'SullivanFull Review

"Hysteria," with its period costumes and English accents, seems like a much better movie than it is.

-Mick LaSalleFull Review

For a light entertainment, this romantic comedy delivers an impressive amount of feminist rhetoric and historical detail.

-Ben SachsFull Review

It doesn't really know what it is. A little of this, a little of that and by the time it's done, it adds up to not much at all.

-Bill GoodykoontzFull Review

Ostensibly a story about sexual liberation, Hysteria needs a thrill worthy of its intended good vibrations.

-Greg QuillFull Review

The performances are spot on, and I especially like the spunky Gyllenhaal...

-Roger EbertFull Review

One of the smartest, funniest and most charming movies of the year.

-Richard RoeperFull Review

It's as if they felt they had to work all that socially conscious stuff into the mix in order to justify the risque humor.

-Peter RainerFull Review

Obviously a movie about the invention of the vibrator is going to have to approach the topic with humour, but ridiculing your main characters' psychology does not build dramatic tension.

-Kate TaylorFull Review

"Hysteria," set in 1880s London, is a light comedy about a pretty dark time for the fairer sex.

-Sara StewartFull Review

Despite its titillating subject matter, Hysteria is only mildly stimulating. The final third of the story meanders during a tedious trial and clumsy speechifying.

-Claudia PuigFull Review

Tanya Wexler's silly, featherweight comedy about the invention of the electric vibrator.

-Stephen HoldenFull Review

A clever, quick-witted, informed and terrific movie!

-Rex ReedFull Review

Hysteria, a disappointingly limp ode to the invention of the vibrator, plays like a Merchant Ivory Production of Portnoy's Complaint.

-Jeannette CatsoulisFull Review

Gyllenhaal ... is fresh and fierce and delightful. Too bad the entire movie hadn't simply concentrated on her, and eliminated all the rest of this awkward fumbling around.

-Stephen WhittyFull Review

"Hysteria" won't rock your world, but it's a perfectly good stand-in until something better comes along.

-Elizabeth WeitzmanFull Review

Hysteria comes across as a rather superficial brand of art house comedy that offers moderate entertainment value but little more.

-James BerardinelliFull Review

...a movie that's finally a little too comfortable with itself.

-Glenn KennyFull Review

Wexler makes a happy, sexually robust history lesson. And whenever Rupert Everett appears as a rich fellow who distinctly does not fancy ladies, it's a hysterical history lesson of the hilarious variety.

-Lisa SchwarzbaumFull Review

Proceeds as a tedious, clumsy diddle, constantly reminding viewers how much progress has been made since the Victorian era.

-Melissa AndersonFull Review

Dancy, Jones and Pryce are dull, while Gyllenhaal plays the spitfire with far too much spit, thumping the other characters and the audience over the head with her do-gooder crusading.

-David GermainFull Review

Hopelessly antiquated, greeting with very British giggles, and without a trace of honest curiosity, the needs of the women it seeks to honor.

-Anthony LaneFull Review


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