Fackham Hall – This Brisk, Funny Parody of Downton Abbey That's Delightfully Throwaway.
Maybe the feeling of an ending era in the air: subsequent to a lengthy span of dormancy, the parody is making a return. The recent season witnessed the rebirth of this lighthearted genre, which, at its best, lampoons the grandiosity of pompously earnest genre with a flood of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and ridiculously smart wordplay.
Playful eras, so it goes, give rise to self-awarely frivolous, gag-packed, welcome light entertainment.
The Newest Entry in This Absurd Wave
The latest of these silly send-ups arrives as Fackham Hall, a takeoff on the British period drama that needles the highly satirizable pretensions of opulent British period dramas. Co-written by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie has plenty of material to mine and exploits every bit of it.
From a ridiculous beginning all the way to its ludicrous finish, this entertaining upper-class adventure crams every one of its runtime with jokes and bits that vary from the puerile up to the authentically hilarious.
A Send-Up of The Gentry and Staff
Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall offers a spoof of very self-important aristocrats and excessively servile help. The story revolves around the hapless Lord Davenport (brought to life by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their children in a series of tragic accidents, their aspirations fall upon securing unions for their daughters.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the family goal of betrothal to the suitable kinsman, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). However after she pulls out, the burden falls upon the unmarried elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as a "dried-up husk already and who harbors unladylike beliefs concerning women's independence.
The Film's Comedy Lands Most Effectively
The spoof is significantly more successful when sending up the stifling norms imposed on pre-war women – a subject frequently explored for earnest storytelling. The archetype of respectable, enviable womanhood supplies the most fertile punching bags.
The narrative thread, as one would expect from a deliberately silly send-up, is of lesser importance to the gags. Carr keeps them arriving at a consistently comedic pace. The film features a murder, a farcical probe, and a forbidden romance featuring the plucky pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
A Note on Lighthearted Fun
It's all in lighthearted fun, though that itself imposes restrictions. The amplified silliness inherent to parody can wear after a while, and the mileage in this instance diminishes in the space between sketch and feature.
At a certain point, one may desire to retreat to stories with (at least a modicum of) coherence. Nevertheless, it's necessary to applaud a sincere commitment to the artform. If we're going to amuse ourselves to death, it's preferable to see the funny side.
