Fackham Hall Review – This Brisk, Humorous Parody of Downton Abbey Which Is Delightfully Lightweight.
Perhaps the notion of end times in the air: after years of quiet, the comedic send-up is making a resurgence. The recent season observed the re-emergence of this unserious film style, which, at its best, skewers the pretensions of overly serious dramas with a barrage of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Playful times, apparently, beget self-awarely frivolous, laugh-filled, pleasantly insubstantial fun.
A Recent Offering in This Absurd Wave
The newest of these absurd spoofs comes in the form of Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that needles the very pokeable airs of opulent English costume epics. Penned in part by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the film has plenty of source material to draw from and uses all of it.
From a ridiculous beginning to a outrageous finale, this enjoyable silver-spoon romp crams every one of its runtime with gags and sketches that vary from the puerile all the way to the authentically hilarious.
A Send-Up of The Gentry and Staff
Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall presents a caricature of extremely pompous the nobility and overly fawning help. The plot revolves around the incompetent Lord Davenport (portrayed by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their four sons in separate tragic accidents, their plans now rest on securing unions for their two girls.
The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has achieved the aristocratic objective of betrothal to the suitable first cousin, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). However after she backs out, the pressure transfers to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as an old maid already and who harbors radically progressive ideas about a woman's own mind.
Where the Comedy Lands Most Effectively
The spoof is significantly more successful when satirizing the suffocating social constraints placed on pre-war women – a topic frequently explored for po-faced melodrama. The archetype of proper, coveted womanhood offers the richest material for mockery.
The narrative thread, as befitting an intentionally ridiculous parody, is secondary to the jokes. The co-writer keeps them coming at an amiably humorous pace. The film features a killing, a bungled inquiry, and an illicit love affair involving the roguish thief Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
A Note on Lighthearted Fun
Everything is for harmless amusement, though that itself imposes restrictions. The amplified foolishness of a spoof might grate quickly, and the entertainment value on this particular variety runs out in the space between sketch and feature.
At a certain point, audiences could long to retreat to stories with (at least a modicum of) reason. Nevertheless, one must respect a wholehearted devotion to the craft. In an age where we might to distract ourselves to death, let's at least see the funny side.
