Fackham Hall – This Rapid-Fire, Funny Downton Abbey Spoof Which Is Delightfully Throwaway.

It could be the notion of end times in the air: after years of dormancy, the spoof is staging a comeback. The past few months saw the re-emergence of this unserious film style, which, in its finest form, skewers the self-importance of overly serious genre with a torrent of exaggerated stereotypes, physical comedy, and stupid-clever puns.

Unserious periods, so it goes, create an appetite for knowingly unserious, gag-packed, pleasantly insubstantial entertainment.

The Newest Offering in This Silly Trend

The latest of these silly send-ups arrives as Fackham Hall, a takeoff on the British period drama that needles the easily mockable airs of wealthy British period dramas. The screenplay comes from British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the movie has a wealth of source material to work with and wastes none of it.

Opening on a absurd opening and culminating in a preposterous conclusion, this entertaining silver-spoon romp packs all of its runtime with gags and sketches ranging from the puerile all the way to the truly humorous.

A Mimicry of Upstairs, Downstairs

Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a caricature of extremely pompous the nobility and excessively servile help. The plot revolves around the incompetent 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 four sons in separate tragic accidents, their aspirations now rest on marrying off their two girls.

The younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the aristocratic objective of betrothal to the suitable first cousin, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). Yet once she pulls out, the burden transfers to the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered a spinster of a woman" and who harbors dangerously modern ideas about a woman's own mind.

The Film's Comedy Succeeds

The spoof is significantly more successful when joking about the oppressive social constraints forced upon Edwardian-era women – a subject often mined for earnest storytelling. The stereotype of respectable, enviable womanhood supplies the richest punching bags.

The plot, as befitting a deliberately silly send-up, takes a back seat to the bits. Carr delivers them coming at an amiably humorous rate. There is a killing, an incompetent investigation, and a forbidden romance between 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 amplified silliness inherent to parody may tire after a while, and the entertainment value in this instance runs out somewhere between sketch and feature.

After a while, one may desire to return to a realm of (at least a modicum of) reason. But, it's necessary to applaud a sincere commitment to the craft. In an age where we might to distract ourselves relentlessly, let's at least see the funny side.