Fackham Hall Review – This Fast-Paced, Witty Downton Abbey Spoof That's Delightfully Ephemeral.
It could be the notion of end times in the air: after years of inactivity, the spoof is enjoying a resurgence. The recent season witnessed the re-emergence of this lighthearted genre, which, at its best, skewers the pretensions of excessively solemn genre with a flood of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and ridiculously smart wordplay.
Frivolous periods, it seems, give rise to self-awarely frivolous, laugh-filled, pleasantly insubstantial entertainment.
A Recent Entry in This Absurd Trend
The newest of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a takeoff on the British period drama that jabs at the highly satirizable self-importance of gilded English costume epics. The screenplay comes from British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie finds ample of source material to work with and uses all of it.
Opening on a ludicrous start to a preposterous conclusion, this entertaining upper-class adventure packs all of its runtime with puns and routines that vary from the puerile to the truly humorous.
A Send-Up of Aristocrats and Servants
Much like Downton, Fackham Hall presents a caricature of extremely pompous aristocrats and overly fawning staff. The story centers on the hapless Lord Davenport (played by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his book-averse wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their male heirs in a series of unfortunate mishaps, their plans now rest on securing unions for their two girls.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the family goal of an engagement to the suitable close relative, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). Yet once she backs out, the onus transfers to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is a spinster at 23 and and holds unladylike notions about a woman's own mind.
Where the Comedy Works Best
The spoof fares much better when satirizing the stifling norms forced upon early 20th-century women – a subject typically treated for po-faced melodrama. The stereotype of idealized ladylike behavior supplies the most fertile material for mockery.
The storyline, as one would expect from a deliberately silly send-up, is of lesser importance to the gags. The writer serves them up maintaining an amiably humorous clip. The film features a murder, a farcical probe, and a star-crossed attraction involving the plucky thief Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
Limitations and Lighthearted Fun
It's all in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality has limitations. The amplified silliness of a spoof can wear after a while, and the entertainment value in this instance expires at the intersection of a skit and feature.
At a certain point, audiences could long to return to the world of (at least a modicum of) coherence. But, it's necessary to respect a sincere commitment to this type of comedy. If we're going to amuse ourselves to death, it's preferable to find the humor in it.
