A Look at Fackham Hall – A Fast-Paced, Humorous Parody of Downton Abbey That's Pleasantly Throwaway.
It could be the sense of an ending era pervading: subsequent to a lengthy span of quiet, the comedic send-up is making a resurgence. The recent season witnessed the re-emergence of this playful category, which, in its finest form, skewers the grandiosity of overly serious genre with a flood of heightened tropes, physical comedy, and stupid-clever puns.
Frivolous periods, so it goes, create an appetite for knowingly unserious, joke-dense, pleasantly insubstantial amusement.
The Newest Offering in This Absurd Wave
The most recent of these goofy parodies comes in the form of Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that pokes fun at the easily mockable airs of gilded English costume epics. The screenplay comes from stand-up performer Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the film finds ample of source material to work with and uses all of it.
Starting with a ludicrous start to a outrageous finale, this entertaining aristocratic caper packs each of its hour and a half with jokes and bits ranging from the juvenile all the way to the genuinely funny.
A Mimicry of Aristocrats and Servants
Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall offers a caricature of very self-important the nobility and excessively servile servants. The narrative centers on the hapless Lord Davenport (portrayed by an enjoyably affected Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their children in separate calamitous events, their plans now rest on marrying off their offspring.
The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the aristocratic objective of an engagement to the right kinsman, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). But once she backs out, the onus shifts to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as an old maid already and and possesses radically progressive notions concerning women's independence.
Its Laughs Works Best
The parody fares much better when satirizing the suffocating social constraints forced upon Edwardian-era females – a topic typically treated for self-serious drama. The stereotype of idealized femininity supplies the richest punching bags.
The narrative thread, as one would expect from an intentionally ridiculous send-up, is of lesser importance to the gags. Carr serves them up maintaining a pleasantly funny rate. Included is a homicide, a bungled inquiry, and an illicit love affair between the roguish street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
Limitations and Frivolous Amusement
It's all in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality comes with constraints. The heightened foolishness inherent to parody can wear over time, and the comic fuel in this instance runs out at the intersection of sketch and a full-length film.
After a while, one may desire to return to the world of (at least a modicum of) reason. Nevertheless, it's necessary to respect a wholehearted devotion to this type of comedy. In an age where we might to entertain ourselves unto oblivion, let's at least see the funny side.