Fackham Hall Review – This Fast-Paced, Humorous Takeoff on Downton Which Is Pleasantly Throwaway.
It could be the feeling of an ending era pervading: following a long period of quiet, the comedic send-up is enjoying a resurgence. The past few months witnessed the revival of this lighthearted genre, which, when done well, skewers the pretensions of excessively solemn genres with a flood of exaggerated stereotypes, visual jokes, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Frivolous periods, apparently, create an appetite for self-awarely frivolous, joke-dense, welcome light entertainment.
The Newest Offering in This Silly Trend
The newest of these absurd spoofs comes in the form of Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that pokes fun at the easily mockable airs of wealthy British period dramas. Co-written by stand-up performer Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie has plenty of inspiration to work with and wastes none of it.
Opening on a ridiculous beginning and culminating in a outrageous finale, this entertaining upper-class adventure fills all of its hour and a half with jokes and bits that vary from the puerile all the way to the genuinely funny.
A Pastiche of Aristocrats and Servants
Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall offers a spoof of very self-important rich people and excessively servile servants. The plot centers on the feckless Lord Davenport (played by an enjoyably affected Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their children in a series of calamitous events, their plans now rest on marrying off their two girls.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the dynastic aim of an engagement to the appropriate first cousin, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). But when she pulls out, the burden falls upon the unmarried elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is a "dried-up husk of a woman" and and holds radically progressive ideas regarding a woman's own mind.
Its Humor Succeeds
The parody is significantly more successful when sending up the suffocating expectations imposed on pre-war women – a topic frequently explored for earnest storytelling. The trope of idealized ladylike behavior provides the best punching bags.
The narrative thread, as befitting an intentionally ridiculous send-up, takes a back seat to the jokes. The co-writer serves them up coming at a consistently comedic pace. Included is a killing, a farcical probe, and a forbidden romance involving the plucky pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
Limitations and Lighthearted Fun
Everything is in the spirit of playful comedy, though that itself comes with constraints. The amplified absurdity of a spoof can wear after a while, and the mileage in this instance diminishes somewhere between sketch and feature.
After a while, you might wish to go back to a realm of (at least a modicum of) logic. Nevertheless, it's necessary to applaud a genuine dedication to this type of comedy. Given that we are to entertain ourselves unto oblivion, it's preferable to find the humor in it.
