Fackham Hall Review – A Brisk, Humorous Parody of Downton Abbey Which Is Delightfully Ephemeral.
Maybe the feeling of end times in the air: after years of dormancy, the comedic send-up is enjoying a resurgence. The past few months witnessed the revival of this lighthearted genre, which, at its best, mocks the grandiosity of overly serious genre with a torrent of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and stupid-clever puns.
Frivolous times, it seems, create an appetite for self-awarely frivolous, laugh-filled, welcome light fun.
The Latest Addition in This Absurd Resurgence
The latest of these absurd spoofs comes in the form of Fackham Hall, a takeoff on the British period drama that needles the highly satirizable airs of wealthy English costume epics. Penned in part by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, the film finds ample of source material to draw from and wastes none of it.
Opening on a absurd opening to a preposterous conclusion, this enjoyable upper-class adventure crams all of its 97 minutes with gags and sketches running the gamut from the juvenile to the genuinely funny.
A Send-Up of Aristocrats and Servants
Much like Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a caricature of overly dignified the nobility and very obsequious staff. The plot focuses on the incompetent Lord Davenport (played by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their male heirs in separate tragic accidents, their hopes fall upon securing unions for their offspring.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the dynastic aim of betrothal to the right first cousin, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). However after she backs out, the pressure falls upon the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is an old maid at 23 and who harbors unladylike notions about women's independence.
Where the Laughs Works Best
The film is significantly more successful when sending up the oppressive norms imposed on early 20th-century females – an area often mined for earnest storytelling. The trope of idealized womanhood supplies the best material for mockery.
The storyline, as is fitting for a deliberately silly spoof, takes a back seat to the bits. The writer delivers them coming at an amiably humorous rate. The film features a homicide, a farcical probe, and a forbidden romance featuring the roguish street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
Limitations and Frivolous Amusement
It's all in lighthearted fun, though that itself imposes restrictions. The heightened absurdity of a spoof can wear over time, and the comic fuel on this particular variety expires in the space between sketch and a full-length film.
Eventually, one may desire to return to a realm of (at least a modicum of) reason. Nevertheless, one must applaud a wholehearted devotion to the craft. Given that we are to amuse ourselves to death, it's preferable to laugh at it.
