Fackham Hall Review – This Rapid-Fire, Funny Parody of Downton Abbey Which Is Pleasantly Ephemeral.
Perhaps the sense of uncertain days in the air: subsequent to a lengthy span of dormancy, the parody is enjoying a resurgence. The past few months saw the rebirth of this lighthearted genre, which, in its finest form, mocks the self-importance of overly serious genres with a barrage of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Frivolous eras, it seems, create an appetite for knowingly unserious, joke-dense, pleasantly insubstantial amusement.
A Recent Offering in This Silly Wave
The latest of these absurd spoofs arrives as Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that pokes fun at the highly satirizable airs of wealthy British period dramas. The screenplay comes from UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has plenty of inspiration to draw from and wastes none of it.
Opening on a absurd opening to a preposterous conclusion, this enjoyable aristocratic caper packs each of its 97 minutes with jokes and bits running the gamut from the childish to the genuinely funny.
A Mimicry of Aristocrats and Servants
Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall presents a pastiche of extremely pompous aristocrats and excessively servile help. The plot focuses on the feckless Lord Davenport (played by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his book-averse wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their children in separate tragic accidents, their aspirations are pinned on finding matches for their daughters.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has achieved the aristocratic objective of betrothal to the suitable first cousin, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). Yet after she withdraws, the pressure shifts to the unmarried elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as a "dried-up husk at 23 and who harbors radically progressive ideas about female autonomy.
The Film's Comedy Lands Most Effectively
The spoof achieves greater effect when satirizing the stifling expectations imposed on Edwardian-era females – a topic typically treated for po-faced melodrama. The trope of respectable, enviable femininity supplies the best comic targets.
The narrative thread, as is fitting for an intentionally ridiculous send-up, is secondary to the bits. The co-writer serves them up arriving at a pleasantly funny rate. The film features a killing, a farcical probe, and an illicit love affair involving the charming thief Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
A Note on Lighthearted Fun
The entire affair is for harmless amusement, though that itself comes with constraints. The heightened foolishness inherent to parody may tire after a while, and the entertainment value for this specific type expires somewhere between sketch and a full-length film.
At a certain point, one may desire to retreat to the world of (at least a modicum of) reason. But, it's necessary to applaud a wholehearted devotion to this type of comedy. If we're going to entertain ourselves unto oblivion, it's preferable to find the humor in it.
