Fackham Hall – This Fast-Paced, Funny Downton Abbey Spoof Which Is Pleasantly Throwaway.
Perhaps the sense of uncertain days around us: subsequent to a lengthy span of inactivity, the parody is making a resurgence. The recent season witnessed the rebirth of this lighthearted genre, which, at its best, mocks the pretensions of overly serious genre with a barrage of pitched clichés, sight gags, and ridiculously smart wordplay.
Frivolous times, apparently, beget self-awarely frivolous, laugh-filled, welcome light amusement.
The Latest Offering in This Absurd Wave
The newest of these absurd spoofs comes in the form of Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that needles the very pokeable self-importance of wealthy English costume epics. The screenplay comes from British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie finds ample of material to work with and uses all of it.
Starting with a ridiculous beginning all the way to its outrageous finale, this enjoyable aristocratic caper packs all of its 97 minutes with puns and routines running the gamut from the childish up to the authentically hilarious.
A Send-Up of Upstairs, Downstairs
Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall presents a spoof of extremely pompous the nobility and very obsequious help. The plot focuses on the incompetent Lord Davenport (portrayed by an enjoyably affected Damian Lewis) and his book-averse wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their four sons in separate unfortunate mishaps, their aspirations are pinned on securing unions for their two girls.
The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the aristocratic objective of an engagement to the right first cousin, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). But when she withdraws, the burden transfers to the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered a "dried-up husk of a woman" and who harbors radically progressive notions about a woman's own mind.
Where the Laughs Lands Most Effectively
The spoof achieves greater effect when satirizing the stifling expectations imposed on pre-war women – a topic typically treated for po-faced melodrama. The trope of idealized femininity provides the richest comic targets.
The storyline, as befitting a purposefully absurd spoof, is secondary to the gags. Carr delivers them arriving at a pleasantly funny pace. There is a murder, a farcical probe, and a forbidden romance between the roguish thief Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
Limitations and Pure Silliness
The entire affair is in lighthearted fun, but that very quality has limitations. The heightened silliness characteristic of the genre can wear quickly, and the mileage on this particular variety diminishes somewhere between a skit and a full-length film.
At a certain point, you might wish to go back to the world of (at least a modicum of) reason. Yet, it's necessary to admire a genuine dedication to this type of comedy. Given that we are to distract ourselves unto oblivion, it's preferable to see the funny side.
