Fackham Hall Review – This Brisk, Funny Parody of Downton Abbey Which Is Delightfully Throwaway.

It could be the feeling of uncertain days around us: following a long period of inactivity, the parody is making a return. The recent season saw the revival of this unserious film style, which, at its best, lampoons the self-importance of pompously earnest genres with a flood of exaggerated stereotypes, sight gags, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.

Playful times, so it goes, give rise to deliberately shallow, joke-dense, pleasantly insubstantial fun.

The Latest Entry in This Absurd Wave

The most recent of these silly send-ups is Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that jabs at the easily mockable self-importance of gilded English costume epics. The screenplay comes from stand-up performer Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie finds ample of material to work with and exploits every bit of it.

From a absurd opening all the way to its ludicrous finish, this amusing upper-class adventure fills all of its runtime with puns and routines running the gamut from the puerile up to the genuinely funny.

A Send-Up of Aristocrats and Servants

Much like Downton, Fackham Hall presents a pastiche of very self-important aristocrats and excessively servile staff. The story revolves around the incompetent Lord Davenport (brought to life by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their male heirs in separate tragic accidents, their hopes are pinned on securing unions for their daughters.

One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the family goal of a promise to marry the right kinsman, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). However after she withdraws, the pressure shifts to the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as a spinster already and and holds radically progressive ideas regarding women's independence.

Where the Humor Works Best

The spoof fares much better when joking about the stifling social constraints placed on Edwardian-era females – a topic often mined for earnest storytelling. The trope of idealized womanhood offers the best comic targets.

The plot, as one would expect from a deliberately silly send-up, is of lesser importance to the gags. Carr delivers them maintaining a consistently comedic rate. The film features a killing, a bungled inquiry, and a star-crossed attraction between the plucky pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

A Note on Pure Silliness

The entire affair is for harmless amusement, but that very quality has limitations. The heightened silliness inherent to parody might grate after a while, and the entertainment value on this particular variety runs out somewhere between a skit and feature.

At a certain point, audiences could long to return to stories with (at least a modicum of) reason. Nevertheless, one must applaud a wholehearted devotion to the craft. Given that we are to distract ourselves relentlessly, let's at least see the funny side.