Fackham Hall Review – This Brisk, Funny Takeoff on Downton Which Is Delightfully Ephemeral.
Perhaps the notion of end times pervading: after years of dormancy, the spoof is enjoying a comeback. The recent season saw the rebirth of this unserious film style, which, when done well, mocks the grandiosity of excessively solemn genres with a flood of pitched clichés, visual jokes, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Playful periods, so it goes, give rise to deliberately shallow, gag-packed, pleasantly insubstantial fun.
The Newest Offering in This Absurd Trend
The latest of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that needles the very pokeable airs of opulent English costume epics. Penned in part by stand-up performer Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, the film finds ample of source material to draw from and exploits every bit of it.
Starting with a ludicrous start to a ludicrous finish, this entertaining aristocratic caper fills all of its runtime with jokes and bits ranging from the puerile to the genuinely funny.
A Pastiche of Upstairs, Downstairs
In the vein of Downton, Fackham Hall presents a pastiche of very self-important aristocrats and excessively servile help. The narrative revolves around the incompetent Lord Davenport (portrayed by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his book-averse wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their male heirs in separate unfortunate mishaps, their plans fall upon securing unions for their two girls.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has achieved the aristocratic objective of an engagement to the right kinsman, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). However when she withdraws, the onus shifts to the unmarried elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is a spinster of a woman" and and possesses dangerously modern beliefs about female autonomy.
The Film's Laughs Succeeds
The film fares much better when joking about the suffocating expectations imposed on Edwardian-era ladies – a topic frequently explored for earnest storytelling. The trope of idealized femininity provides the best punching bags.
The storyline, as befitting a deliberately silly spoof, takes a back seat to the bits. The writer delivers them arriving at an amiably humorous pace. There is a homicide, a farcical probe, and an illicit love affair between the plucky street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
The Constraints of Frivolous Amusement
Everything is in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality comes with constraints. The dialed-up absurdity inherent to parody can wear quickly, and the entertainment value on this particular variety expires in the space between sketch and feature.
After a while, one may desire to go back to the world of (at least a modicum of) logic. Yet, you have to respect a wholehearted devotion to this type of comedy. Given that we are to entertain ourselves to death, we might as well find the humor in it.
