Fackham Hall Review – A Rapid-Fire, Witty Parody of Downton Abbey That's Delightfully Ephemeral.
Perhaps the notion of end times pervading: subsequent to a lengthy span of quiet, the parody is enjoying a comeback. This summer saw the re-emergence of this lighthearted genre, which, when done well, mocks the grandiosity of pompously earnest genres with a torrent of exaggerated stereotypes, visual jokes, and ridiculously smart wordplay.
Frivolous periods, it seems, beget self-awarely frivolous, laugh-filled, refreshingly shallow fun.
A Recent Entry in This Absurd Wave
The most recent of these silly send-ups is Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that pokes fun at the easily mockable self-importance of wealthy British period dramas. Penned in part by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie finds ample of source material to mine and uses all of it.
From a ridiculous beginning all the way to its outrageous finale, this enjoyable aristocratic caper crams each of its hour and a half with puns and routines running the gamut from the childish all the way to the genuinely funny.
A Pastiche of Aristocrats and Servants
Much like Downton, Fackham Hall presents a pastiche of very self-important the nobility and excessively servile help. The narrative centers on the feckless Lord Davenport (brought to life by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his book-averse wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their children in separate unfortunate mishaps, their hopes fall upon marrying off their offspring.
The junior daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the family goal of a promise to marry the appropriate first cousin, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). However once she withdraws, the burden transfers to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is a "dried-up husk of a woman" and and possesses unladylike ideas about women's independence.
The Film's Comedy Lands Most Effectively
The spoof fares much better when sending up the stifling norms forced upon early 20th-century females – a subject often mined for po-faced melodrama. The stereotype of respectable, enviable ladylike behavior supplies the best material for mockery.
The narrative thread, as befitting a purposefully absurd parody, is secondary to the jokes. Carr delivers them coming at a consistently comedic rate. There is a murder, an incompetent investigation, and a star-crossed attraction involving the roguish street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
A Note on Lighthearted Fun
The entire affair is in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality comes with constraints. The dialed-up foolishness of a spoof can wear over time, and the comic fuel on this particular variety expires somewhere between sketch and a full-length film.
At a certain point, you might wish to retreat to stories with (very slight) logic. But, one must admire a sincere commitment to this type of comedy. In an age where we might to entertain ourselves to death, it's preferable to see the funny side.
