A Look at Fackham Hall – This Brisk, Witty Downton Abbey Spoof That's Refreshingly Lightweight.

Maybe the feeling of uncertain days around us: after years of inactivity, the comedic send-up is making a return. The past few months witnessed the re-emergence of this lighthearted genre, which, at its best, skewers the grandiosity of overly serious genre with a torrent of pitched clichés, physical comedy, and ridiculously smart wordplay.

Frivolous periods, it seems, give rise to deliberately shallow, joke-dense, welcome light amusement.

The Latest Addition in This Silly Wave

The latest of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that pokes fun at the very pokeable pretensions of opulent British period dramas. Penned in part by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie finds ample of inspiration to work with and exploits every bit of it.

Opening on a absurd opening all the way to its ludicrous finish, this amusing upper-class adventure crams each of its hour and a half with puns and routines ranging from the puerile up to the genuinely funny.

A Send-Up of Upstairs, Downstairs

Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a caricature of very self-important the nobility and overly fawning servants. The narrative centers on the hapless Lord Davenport (portrayed by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their children in various calamitous events, their aspirations now rest on marrying off their offspring.

The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the aristocratic objective of an engagement to the suitable close relative, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). Yet once she backs out, the burden transfers to the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered a "dried-up husk already and and possesses radically progressive ideas concerning a woman's own mind.

The Film's Humor Succeeds

The parody is significantly more successful when sending up the oppressive social constraints forced upon early 20th-century females – a topic typically treated for po-faced melodrama. The archetype of idealized femininity offers the most fertile material for mockery.

The narrative thread, as befitting an intentionally ridiculous parody, takes a back seat to the bits. Carr delivers them arriving at a consistently comedic clip. The film features a murder, a farcical probe, and an illicit love affair involving the charming pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

A Note on Lighthearted Fun

The entire affair is in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality has limitations. The heightened absurdity characteristic of the genre may tire over time, and the mileage in this instance diminishes somewhere between a skit and feature.

After a while, you might wish to go back to a realm of (very slight) coherence. Yet, it's necessary to admire a genuine dedication to the artform. Given that we are to amuse ourselves relentlessly, let's at least find the humor in it.