Fackham Hall – A Brisk, Funny Takeoff on Downton Which Is Delightfully Throwaway.
Maybe the feeling of uncertain days around us: after years of quiet, the parody is making a resurgence. This summer saw the rebirth of this unserious film style, which, at its best, mocks the grandiosity of pompously earnest genre with a flood of exaggerated stereotypes, sight gags, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Frivolous periods, it seems, beget deliberately shallow, laugh-filled, refreshingly shallow fun.
The Newest Offering in This Silly Trend
The most recent of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that needles the very pokeable airs of wealthy UK historical series. Co-written by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has a wealth of material to work with and wastes none of it.
Starting with a ridiculous beginning to a ludicrous finish, this entertaining silver-spoon romp fills all of its hour and a half with jokes and bits running the gamut from the juvenile all the way to the genuinely funny.
A Pastiche of Upstairs, Downstairs
Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a caricature of very self-important aristocrats and excessively servile help. The plot focuses on the hapless Lord Davenport (portrayed by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their male heirs in separate unfortunate mishaps, their plans now rest on securing unions for their two girls.
The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the family goal of a promise to marry the suitable first cousin, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). But after she withdraws, the pressure transfers to the unmarried elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as an old maid of a woman" and and possesses unladylike beliefs about women's independence.
The Film's Comedy Lands Most Effectively
The film is significantly more successful when joking about the oppressive expectations placed on pre-war ladies – a subject often mined for self-serious drama. The archetype of idealized womanhood provides the most fertile material for mockery.
The plot, as is fitting for an intentionally ridiculous send-up, takes a back seat to the gags. The co-writer delivers them arriving at an amiably humorous clip. The film features a murder, a bungled inquiry, and an illicit love affair involving the plucky thief Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
The Constraints of Pure Silliness
Everything is in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality comes with constraints. The heightened foolishness inherent to parody might grate after a while, and the entertainment value for this specific type diminishes at the intersection of sketch and feature.
After a while, you might wish to return to stories with (at least a modicum of) reason. Nevertheless, it's necessary to applaud a wholehearted devotion to the artform. If we're going to distract ourselves relentlessly, we might as well laugh at it.
