Fackham Hall Review – This Brisk, Witty Downton Abbey Spoof That's Pleasantly Lightweight.

It could be the notion of an ending era pervading: following a long period of quiet, the parody is staging a comeback. The recent season observed the revival of this unserious film style, which, at its best, lampoons the pretensions of pompously earnest genre with a flood of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and ridiculously smart wordplay.

Playful times, so it goes, create an appetite for deliberately shallow, laugh-filled, pleasantly insubstantial entertainment.

The Newest Entry in This Absurd Resurgence

The newest of these silly send-ups is Fackham Hall, a takeoff on the British period drama that jabs at the very pokeable self-importance of wealthy British period dramas. Co-written by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has plenty of material to mine and exploits every bit of it.

From a absurd opening all the way to its outrageous finale, this amusing upper-class adventure packs all of its 97 minutes with puns and routines running the gamut from the puerile to the authentically hilarious.

A Pastiche of The Gentry and Staff

Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a pastiche of extremely pompous the nobility and very obsequious staff. The narrative revolves around the hapless Lord Davenport (portrayed by an enjoyably affected Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their children in a series of calamitous events, their hopes now rest on marrying off their daughters.

One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the family goal of betrothal to the right kinsman, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). Yet after she withdraws, the burden transfers to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is a spinster of a woman" and and possesses dangerously modern beliefs concerning a woman's own mind.

Where the Humor Lands Most Effectively

The parody achieves greater effect when satirizing the oppressive social constraints placed on pre-war ladies – a topic frequently explored for earnest storytelling. The archetype of proper, coveted ladylike behavior offers the most fertile punching bags.

The storyline, as one would expect from a deliberately silly parody, is of lesser importance to the bits. The co-writer keeps them maintaining an amiably humorous pace. There is a killing, an incompetent investigation, and a forbidden romance involving the charming street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

Limitations and Pure Silliness

It's all in the spirit of playful comedy, though that itself comes with constraints. The dialed-up absurdity of a spoof may tire after a while, and the comic fuel in this instance runs out at the intersection of sketch and a full-length film.

Eventually, audiences could long to go back to stories with (very slight) reason. Nevertheless, one must admire a wholehearted devotion to this type of comedy. Given that we are to entertain ourselves to death, we might as well see the funny side.