A Look at Fackham Hall – A Brisk, Funny Takeoff on Downton Which Is Delightfully Throwaway.
It could be the feeling of end times in the air: after years of dormancy, the parody is making a return. The recent season observed the re-emergence of this unserious film style, which, at its best, mocks the self-importance of overly serious genre with a barrage of exaggerated stereotypes, visual jokes, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Unserious periods, it seems, create an appetite for deliberately shallow, joke-dense, welcome light entertainment.
A Recent Entry in This Goofy Wave
The most recent of these silly send-ups comes in the form of Fackham Hall, a takeoff on the British period drama that jabs at the very pokeable pretensions of opulent UK historical series. Co-written by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has plenty of material to draw from and wastes none of it.
Opening on a absurd opening and culminating in a preposterous conclusion, this amusing silver-spoon romp fills all of its runtime with gags and sketches ranging from the puerile all the way to the truly humorous.
A Mimicry of Aristocrats and Servants
In the vein of Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a pastiche of overly dignified aristocrats and very obsequious servants. The story centers on the incompetent Lord Davenport (brought to life by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their children in separate tragic accidents, their hopes are pinned on securing unions for their two girls.
The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the family goal of an engagement to the suitable close relative, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). But when she withdraws, the onus falls upon the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered an old maid already and who harbors radically progressive ideas concerning a woman's own mind.
The Film's Comedy Succeeds
The film achieves greater effect when sending up the suffocating social constraints forced upon pre-war women – a subject typically treated for self-serious drama. The archetype of proper, coveted womanhood supplies the richest punching bags.
The plot, as is fitting for a purposefully absurd send-up, is of lesser importance to the gags. Carr delivers them maintaining a consistently comedic clip. There is a homicide, a farcical probe, and a star-crossed attraction between the roguish pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
The Constraints of Frivolous Amusement
Everything is for harmless amusement, though that itself imposes restrictions. The dialed-up absurdity characteristic of the genre may tire quickly, and the mileage for this specific type runs out at the intersection of a skit and a full-length film.
At a certain point, audiences could long to go back to the world of (very slight) reason. Nevertheless, one must respect a wholehearted devotion to this type of comedy. In an age where we might to amuse ourselves to death, it's preferable to find the humor in it.
