Fackham Hall – A Fast-Paced, Funny Takeoff on Downton That's Pleasantly Ephemeral.
Maybe the notion of end times in the air: following a long period of inactivity, the spoof is enjoying a resurgence. The recent season witnessed the re-emergence of this unserious film style, which, when done well, mocks the grandiosity of overly serious dramas with a barrage of exaggerated stereotypes, sight gags, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Frivolous periods, so it goes, create an appetite for knowingly unserious, gag-packed, welcome light amusement.
The Newest Entry in This Goofy Resurgence
The newest of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that pokes fun at the highly satirizable pretensions of wealthy UK historical series. Co-written by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has plenty of material to mine and exploits every bit of it.
Opening on a absurd opening and culminating in a preposterous conclusion, this entertaining aristocratic caper fills each of its 97 minutes with gags and sketches ranging from the juvenile to the genuinely funny.
A Send-Up of The Gentry and Staff
Much like Downton, Fackham Hall offers a spoof of extremely pompous aristocrats and very obsequious help. The plot centers on the incompetent Lord Davenport (portrayed by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their male heirs in various tragic accidents, their aspirations are pinned on securing unions for their daughters.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the dynastic aim of betrothal to the right kinsman, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). Yet after she backs out, the onus falls upon the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is a "dried-up husk of a woman" and and holds dangerously modern notions about a woman's own mind.
Where the Laughs Lands Most Effectively
The spoof is significantly more successful when joking about the stifling social constraints forced upon pre-war ladies – a topic often mined for earnest storytelling. The trope of respectable, enviable womanhood provides the most fertile comic targets.
The narrative thread, as one would expect from a purposefully absurd parody, is of lesser importance to the bits. The writer delivers them arriving at a pleasantly funny rate. Included is a homicide, an incompetent investigation, and a forbidden romance between the roguish street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
The Constraints of Pure Silliness
It's all in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality has limitations. The heightened foolishness characteristic of the genre can wear after a while, and the comic fuel on this particular variety expires in the space between a skit and a full-length film.
At a certain point, audiences could long to retreat to the world of (at least a modicum of) coherence. Nevertheless, you have to respect a sincere commitment to the craft. Given that we are to entertain ourselves to death, we might as well find the humor in it.
