A Look at Fackham Hall – A Rapid-Fire, Witty Parody of Downton Abbey That's Refreshingly Lightweight.
It could be the notion of an ending era in the air: subsequent to a lengthy span of dormancy, the spoof is enjoying a comeback. This summer saw the re-emergence of this unserious film style, which, in its finest form, lampoons the grandiosity of excessively solemn genres with a flood of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Unserious eras, so it goes, create an appetite for knowingly unserious, joke-dense, welcome light amusement.
The Newest Offering in This Absurd Trend
The latest of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that jabs at the very pokeable pretensions of gilded British period dramas. Co-written by stand-up performer Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie has a wealth of inspiration to mine and wastes none of it.
Starting with a ridiculous beginning and culminating in a ludicrous finish, this entertaining silver-spoon romp fills every one of its hour and a half with gags and sketches ranging from the childish up to the authentically hilarious.
A Pastiche of The Gentry and Staff
In the vein of Downton, Fackham Hall offers a caricature of very self-important the nobility and very obsequious servants. The narrative revolves around the feckless Lord Davenport (played by an enjoyably affected Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their male heirs in separate tragic accidents, their aspirations fall upon marrying off their daughters.
The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the family goal of an engagement to the right close relative, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). But after she pulls out, the onus falls upon the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is a "dried-up husk already and and possesses radically progressive ideas concerning women's independence.
Its Laughs Lands Most Effectively
The film fares much better when satirizing the oppressive social constraints placed on pre-war ladies – a subject often mined for earnest storytelling. The stereotype of respectable, enviable femininity offers the richest comic targets.
The narrative thread, as is fitting for a purposefully absurd spoof, is of lesser importance to the gags. The writer delivers them arriving at an amiably humorous pace. The film features a killing, a farcical probe, and a forbidden romance featuring the plucky thief Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
A Note on Frivolous Amusement
It's all in the spirit of playful comedy, however, this approach has limitations. The dialed-up silliness of a spoof might grate over time, and the entertainment value on this particular variety expires at the intersection of a skit and feature.
At a certain point, audiences could long to retreat to the world of (at least a modicum of) coherence. Nevertheless, one must respect a wholehearted devotion to the craft. In an age where we might to entertain ourselves to death, it's preferable to find the humor in it.
