Fackham Hall Review – A Fast-Paced, Funny Parody of Downton Abbey Which Is Refreshingly Ephemeral.

It could be the notion of an ending era around us: after years of inactivity, the parody is enjoying a return. This summer observed the rebirth of this unserious film style, which, in its finest form, lampoons the self-importance of overly serious dramas with a flood of pitched clichés, physical comedy, and stupid-clever puns.

Playful eras, apparently, beget deliberately shallow, joke-dense, pleasantly insubstantial entertainment.

A Recent Offering in This Silly Wave

The latest of these goofy parodies arrives as Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that pokes fun at the very pokeable pretensions of opulent UK historical series. Penned in part by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has a wealth of source material to work with and uses all of it.

From a absurd opening and culminating in a outrageous finale, this enjoyable upper-class adventure crams every one of its runtime with gags and sketches running the gamut from the puerile up to the genuinely funny.

A Pastiche of Aristocrats and Servants

Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall offers a caricature of extremely pompous the nobility and very obsequious staff. The narrative revolves around the hapless Lord Davenport (portrayed by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their four sons in separate calamitous events, their plans now rest on finding matches for their two girls.

The junior daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the dynastic aim of an engagement to the appropriate kinsman, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). However once she backs out, the onus transfers to the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered an old maid already and who harbors radically progressive notions about a woman's own mind.

Its Humor Works Best

The parody achieves greater effect when satirizing the suffocating expectations forced upon early 20th-century women – a subject often mined for earnest storytelling. The trope of proper, coveted femininity offers the best material for mockery.

The narrative thread, as is fitting for a deliberately silly spoof, is secondary to the gags. The writer keeps them arriving at a consistently comedic rate. The film features a homicide, a bungled inquiry, and a forbidden romance involving the plucky street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

Limitations and Frivolous Amusement

Everything is for harmless amusement, but that very quality has limitations. The dialed-up foolishness of a spoof might grate after a while, and the entertainment value in this instance runs out in the space between a skit and a full-length film.

After a while, one may desire to retreat to stories with (very slight) coherence. But, it's necessary to applaud a genuine dedication to the artform. If we're going to distract ourselves unto oblivion, let's at least find the humor in it.