Fackham Hall – This Brisk, Funny Parody of Downton Abbey Which Is Pleasantly Throwaway.
Perhaps the sense of an ending era around us: following a long period of quiet, the comedic send-up is enjoying a resurgence. The past few months observed the re-emergence of this playful category, which, in its finest form, skewers the self-importance of excessively solemn genre with a barrage of pitched clichés, visual jokes, and stupid-clever puns.
Playful periods, it seems, beget self-awarely frivolous, gag-packed, refreshingly shallow fun.
The Newest Entry in This Goofy Trend
The most recent of these absurd spoofs comes in the form of Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that pokes fun at the easily mockable pretensions of opulent British period dramas. Penned in part by stand-up performer Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature finds ample of source material to work with and wastes none of it.
From a ludicrous start to a outrageous finale, this entertaining upper-class adventure packs every one of its 97 minutes with gags and sketches that vary from the puerile up to the truly humorous.
A Mimicry of Aristocrats and Servants
Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall presents a pastiche of very self-important the nobility and very obsequious staff. The plot revolves around the hapless Lord Davenport (played by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their male heirs in a series of tragic accidents, their hopes are pinned on finding matches for their offspring.
The junior daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has achieved the aristocratic objective of an engagement to the appropriate kinsman, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). However once she backs out, the burden shifts to the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered a "dried-up husk already and who harbors radically progressive notions concerning female autonomy.
Its Humor Succeeds
The film is significantly more successful when sending up the suffocating social constraints imposed on early 20th-century ladies – an area typically treated for po-faced melodrama. The stereotype of idealized womanhood offers the best material for mockery.
The plot, as befitting a deliberately silly send-up, takes a back seat to the gags. The writer serves them up maintaining a pleasantly funny clip. Included is a killing, a bungled inquiry, and a forbidden romance between the charming street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
The Constraints of Lighthearted Fun
Everything is in the spirit of playful comedy, though that itself has limitations. The amplified absurdity of a spoof can wear quickly, and the entertainment value for this specific type expires somewhere between sketch and a full-length film.
After a while, audiences could long to return to stories with (very slight) logic. But, one must admire a wholehearted devotion to the craft. Given that we are to entertain ourselves unto oblivion, it's preferable to see the funny side.
