Fackham Hall Review – This Brisk, Funny Parody of Downton Abbey That's Delightfully Ephemeral.

Maybe the sense of end times pervading: after years of inactivity, the parody is enjoying a resurgence. The recent season observed the rebirth of this unserious film style, which, in its finest form, skewers the pretensions of pompously earnest dramas with a torrent of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and stupid-clever puns.

Unserious times, apparently, give rise to deliberately shallow, joke-dense, refreshingly shallow amusement.

The Newest Addition in This Silly Trend

The newest of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that jabs at the very pokeable airs of opulent English costume epics. Co-written by stand-up performer Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has a wealth of inspiration to mine and exploits every bit of it.

Starting with a absurd opening all the way to its ludicrous finish, this enjoyable aristocratic caper packs all of its 97 minutes with gags and sketches that vary from the puerile up to the authentically hilarious.

A Pastiche of The Gentry and Staff

Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall offers a caricature of very self-important rich people and overly fawning staff. The plot focuses on the hapless Lord Davenport (played by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their male heirs in separate calamitous events, their hopes fall upon marrying off their daughters.

The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the family goal of an engagement to the suitable first cousin, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). Yet after she pulls out, the burden falls upon the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered a "dried-up husk at 23 and who harbors dangerously modern ideas about women's independence.

Where the Humor Succeeds

The parody fares much better when satirizing the oppressive social constraints forced upon pre-war women – an area often mined for self-serious drama. The trope of idealized femininity provides the best material for mockery.

The narrative thread, as is fitting for a purposefully absurd spoof, is secondary to the bits. The writer serves them up coming at a consistently comedic clip. Included is a murder, a farcical probe, and a star-crossed attraction between the charming street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

A Note on Lighthearted Fun

Everything is in lighthearted fun, though that itself has limitations. The amplified foolishness characteristic of the genre might grate quickly, and the mileage for this specific type diminishes at the intersection of sketch and a full-length film.

At a certain point, one may desire to go back to a realm of (very slight) coherence. Nevertheless, you have to admire a genuine dedication to the artform. If we're going to amuse ourselves to death, it's preferable to laugh at it.