Fackham Hall Review – This Rapid-Fire, Funny Takeoff on Downton That's Delightfully Lightweight.
Perhaps the sense of uncertain days pervading: following a long period of dormancy, the comedic send-up is making a return. The recent season witnessed the re-emergence of this unserious film style, which, at its best, mocks the pretensions of overly serious genres with a flood of pitched clichés, physical comedy, and ridiculously smart wordplay.
Frivolous times, it seems, give rise to self-awarely frivolous, joke-dense, pleasantly insubstantial amusement.
The Newest Offering in This Silly Resurgence
The latest of these silly send-ups is Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that pokes fun at the easily mockable airs of opulent British period dramas. Penned in part by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie finds ample of material to work with and wastes none of it.
Starting with a ridiculous beginning all the way to its ludicrous finish, this amusing silver-spoon romp fills all of its 97 minutes with jokes and bits that vary from the juvenile all the way to the genuinely funny.
A Pastiche of Aristocrats and Servants
Much like Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a pastiche of very self-important the nobility and overly fawning servants. The narrative focuses on the feckless Lord Davenport (portrayed by an enjoyably affected Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their children in various calamitous events, their plans now rest on marrying off their two girls.
The junior daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the family goal of betrothal to the right first cousin, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). However when she pulls out, the pressure shifts to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as an old maid already and and holds dangerously modern beliefs about female autonomy.
Where the Comedy Succeeds
The spoof is significantly more successful when satirizing the oppressive norms placed on Edwardian-era women – a subject frequently explored for self-serious drama. The stereotype of proper, coveted womanhood offers the best punching bags.
The storyline, as one would expect from a deliberately silly spoof, is secondary to the bits. The writer delivers them coming at an amiably humorous pace. The film features a killing, a farcical probe, and an illicit love affair between the charming pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
A Note on Lighthearted Fun
The entire affair is in lighthearted fun, though that itself comes with constraints. The dialed-up silliness characteristic of the genre might grate quickly, and the comic fuel on this particular variety diminishes somewhere between a skit and a full-length film.
Eventually, audiences could long to go back to a realm of (at least a modicum of) coherence. Nevertheless, you have to admire a genuine dedication to this type of comedy. Given that we are to amuse ourselves to death, it's preferable to laugh at it.
