Fackham Hall Review – This Rapid-Fire, Witty Downton Abbey Spoof Which Is Pleasantly Lightweight.

Maybe the feeling of uncertain days pervading: following a long period of quiet, the spoof is staging a return. The recent season witnessed the rebirth of this playful category, which, when done well, skewers the grandiosity of pompously earnest genres with a barrage of exaggerated stereotypes, sight gags, and stupid-clever puns.

Unserious times, it seems, create an appetite for deliberately shallow, joke-dense, pleasantly insubstantial entertainment.

The Latest Entry in This Goofy Wave

The most recent of these goofy parodies arrives as Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that jabs at the easily mockable self-importance of gilded UK historical series. Penned in part by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie finds ample of material to draw from and uses all of it.

Starting with a ludicrous start all the way to its outrageous finale, this entertaining aristocratic caper packs each of its hour and a half with jokes and bits ranging from the childish to the authentically hilarious.

A Mimicry of The Gentry and Staff

Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a pastiche of overly dignified rich people and overly fawning staff. The narrative revolves around the incompetent Lord Davenport (portrayed by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their male heirs in a series of calamitous events, their hopes are pinned on marrying off their two girls.

One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the aristocratic objective of a promise to marry the right first cousin, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). But once she backs out, the burden falls upon the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is a "dried-up husk of a woman" and and possesses radically progressive beliefs concerning a woman's own mind.

Its Comedy Lands Most Effectively

The parody fares much better when joking about the stifling expectations placed on early 20th-century females – an area often mined for po-faced melodrama. The trope of proper, coveted ladylike behavior offers the richest material for mockery.

The plot, as is fitting for a purposefully absurd spoof, takes a back seat to the gags. The writer delivers them coming at an amiably humorous rate. The film features a homicide, a farcical probe, and a forbidden romance involving the plucky pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

The Constraints of Frivolous Amusement

It's all in the spirit of playful comedy, though that itself has limitations. The dialed-up absurdity characteristic of the genre can wear over time, and the comic fuel for this specific type expires at the intersection of a skit and feature.

Eventually, you might wish to retreat to stories with (very slight) logic. Yet, one must respect a genuine dedication to the artform. If we're going to entertain ourselves unto oblivion, we might as well see the funny side.