Fackham Hall Review – A Brisk, Funny Downton Abbey Spoof That's Delightfully Ephemeral.
Perhaps the sense of uncertain days around us: subsequent to a lengthy span of inactivity, the parody is staging a resurgence. The past few months saw the re-emergence of this unserious film style, which, in its finest form, skewers the pretensions of overly serious genre with a barrage of exaggerated stereotypes, visual jokes, and ridiculously smart wordplay.
Playful eras, it seems, create an appetite for knowingly unserious, gag-packed, pleasantly insubstantial amusement.
The Latest Offering in This Goofy Wave
The latest of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that needles the easily mockable pretensions of wealthy British period dramas. Co-written by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie has plenty of source material to work with and uses all of it.
From a absurd opening to a outrageous finale, this entertaining silver-spoon romp packs all of its runtime with puns and routines running the gamut from the juvenile up to the genuinely funny.
A Mimicry of Upstairs, Downstairs
Much like Downton, Fackham Hall presents a caricature of extremely pompous the nobility and overly fawning help. The story revolves around the incompetent Lord Davenport (brought to life by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their male heirs in a series of calamitous events, their aspirations now rest on finding matches for their two girls.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has achieved the dynastic aim of a promise to marry the appropriate kinsman, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). But when she pulls out, the onus shifts to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as a spinster already and who harbors unladylike beliefs about a woman's own mind.
The Film's Comedy Succeeds
The parody achieves greater effect when joking about the suffocating social constraints forced upon pre-war women – a topic frequently explored for self-serious drama. The trope of proper, coveted womanhood supplies the most fertile comic targets.
The plot, as befitting a purposefully absurd send-up, takes a back seat to the bits. The co-writer delivers them maintaining an amiably humorous clip. The film features a homicide, a bungled inquiry, and an illicit love affair between the plucky thief Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
A Note on Pure Silliness
The entire affair is for harmless amusement, but that very quality has limitations. The amplified absurdity of a spoof might grate after a while, and the entertainment value for this specific type runs out in the space between a skit and feature.
Eventually, audiences could long to return to the world of (very slight) reason. Yet, one must applaud a sincere commitment to the craft. If we're going to distract ourselves to death, let's at least see the funny side.
