Fackham Hall Review – A Rapid-Fire, Funny Downton Abbey Spoof Which Is Delightfully Lightweight.

Perhaps the sense of end times pervading: after years of dormancy, the parody is staging a return. The past few months witnessed the revival of this playful category, which, at its best, lampoons the self-importance of overly serious genres with a torrent of exaggerated stereotypes, physical comedy, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.

Playful eras, apparently, give rise to self-awarely frivolous, laugh-filled, refreshingly shallow amusement.

A Recent Addition in This Absurd Trend

The most recent of these goofy parodies arrives as Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that pokes fun at the very pokeable pretensions of opulent English costume epics. The screenplay comes from British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie has plenty of material to draw from and wastes none of it.

Starting with a absurd opening and culminating in a outrageous finale, this amusing upper-class adventure crams each of its runtime with puns and routines running the gamut from the puerile all the way to the truly humorous.

A Pastiche of The Gentry and Staff

Much like Downton, Fackham Hall offers a pastiche of extremely pompous the nobility and overly fawning staff. The narrative revolves around the hapless Lord Davenport (brought to life by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their male heirs in separate unfortunate mishaps, their plans now rest on securing unions for their offspring.

One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the aristocratic objective of betrothal to the right kinsman, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). However once she pulls out, the burden shifts to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered a "dried-up husk of a woman" and and holds dangerously modern notions concerning women's independence.

Its Humor Works Best

The spoof fares much better when joking about the oppressive expectations placed on early 20th-century women – an area often mined for earnest storytelling. The stereotype of proper, coveted womanhood offers the richest punching bags.

The plot, as one would expect from an intentionally ridiculous spoof, is of lesser importance to the bits. Carr serves them up maintaining a consistently comedic rate. There is a killing, a farcical probe, and an illicit love affair between the plucky street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

The Constraints of Frivolous Amusement

Everything is for harmless amusement, however, this approach has limitations. The amplified foolishness of a spoof might grate over time, and the entertainment value in this instance runs out at the intersection of a skit and feature.

At a certain point, audiences could long to return to stories with (very slight) logic. But, it's necessary to respect a genuine dedication to the craft. In an age where we might to distract ourselves relentlessly, we might as well see the funny side.