A Look at Fackham Hall – This Brisk, Funny Takeoff on Downton That's Delightfully Lightweight.
Maybe the feeling of an ending era around us: following a long period of inactivity, the spoof is making a comeback. The recent season witnessed the rebirth of this playful category, which, at its best, skewers the pretensions of excessively solemn dramas with a barrage of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and ridiculously smart wordplay.
Playful times, it seems, create an appetite for knowingly unserious, laugh-filled, welcome light amusement.
A Recent Addition in This Absurd Resurgence
The newest of these silly send-ups comes in the form of Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that needles the easily mockable airs of opulent British period dramas. Penned in part by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has plenty of inspiration to mine and uses all of it.
From a absurd opening to a outrageous finale, this enjoyable upper-class adventure packs each of its runtime with jokes and bits running the gamut from the juvenile to the genuinely funny.
A Send-Up of Aristocrats and Servants
In the vein of Downton, Fackham Hall offers a spoof of extremely pompous the nobility and excessively servile staff. The plot centers on the incompetent Lord Davenport (brought to life by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his book-averse wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). After losing their four sons in separate calamitous events, their plans now rest on securing unions for their offspring.
The junior daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the aristocratic objective of a promise to marry the appropriate kinsman, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). But once she withdraws, the pressure shifts to the unmarried elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered a spinster at 23 and and possesses radically progressive notions about a woman's own mind.
Where the Laughs Lands Most Effectively
The spoof achieves greater effect when joking about the stifling social constraints placed on early 20th-century ladies – a topic typically treated for earnest storytelling. The stereotype of idealized femininity offers the most fertile comic targets.
The narrative thread, as befitting a deliberately silly spoof, is secondary to the jokes. The writer delivers them maintaining a pleasantly funny clip. The film features a killing, a farcical probe, and an illicit love affair between the roguish pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
The Constraints of Frivolous Amusement
Everything is in lighthearted fun, however, this approach imposes restrictions. The amplified absurdity characteristic of the genre can wear over time, and the entertainment value on this particular variety diminishes somewhere between a skit and feature.
At a certain point, one may desire to go back to the world of (at least a modicum of) logic. But, one must admire a sincere commitment to this type of comedy. In an age where we might to entertain ourselves unto oblivion, let's at least find the humor in it.
