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

Maybe the notion of an ending era around us: after years of inactivity, the spoof is enjoying a return. The recent season observed the rebirth of this playful category, which, at its best, lampoons the self-importance of pompously earnest dramas with a torrent of pitched clichés, physical comedy, and ridiculously smart wordplay.

Frivolous periods, it seems, beget knowingly unserious, gag-packed, pleasantly insubstantial amusement.

The Newest Entry in This Goofy Trend

The latest of these silly send-ups is Fackham Hall, a takeoff on the British period drama that pokes fun at the easily mockable pretensions of gilded English costume epics. The screenplay comes from stand-up performer Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie finds ample of inspiration to mine and wastes none of it.

Opening on a ridiculous beginning to a preposterous conclusion, this amusing upper-class adventure crams every one of its hour and a half with gags and sketches ranging from the childish to the authentically hilarious.

A Send-Up of The Gentry and Staff

Much like Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a caricature of overly dignified rich people and excessively servile servants. The story focuses on the hapless Lord Davenport (played by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their children in separate tragic accidents, their aspirations fall upon securing unions for their two girls.

One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the aristocratic objective of a promise to marry the appropriate first cousin, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). But once she withdraws, the burden shifts to the unmarried elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered an old maid already and and holds unladylike ideas regarding female autonomy.

Its Humor Works Best

The film is significantly more successful when satirizing the stifling expectations placed on pre-war women – a subject often mined for po-faced melodrama. The archetype of proper, coveted ladylike behavior offers the most fertile comic targets.

The storyline, as one would expect from an intentionally ridiculous spoof, is of lesser importance to the bits. The writer serves them up coming at a pleasantly funny pace. There is a killing, a bungled inquiry, and a forbidden romance between the plucky street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

Limitations and Lighthearted Fun

It's all in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality has limitations. The amplified silliness of a spoof can wear after a while, and the comic fuel on this particular variety expires in the space between a skit and feature.

Eventually, audiences could long to retreat to the world of (at least a modicum of) logic. Yet, one must applaud a sincere commitment to the artform. Given that we are to amuse ourselves relentlessly, it's preferable to see the funny side.