Fackham Hall – A Fast-Paced, Witty Downton Abbey Spoof That's Delightfully Ephemeral.

Maybe the sense of end times pervading: following a long period of inactivity, the spoof is staging a comeback. This summer saw the rebirth of this unserious film style, which, at its best, mocks the pretensions of overly serious genres with a torrent of pitched clichés, visual jokes, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.

Unserious periods, apparently, create an appetite for self-awarely frivolous, gag-packed, pleasantly insubstantial entertainment.

The Newest Entry in This Absurd Trend

The most recent of these absurd spoofs arrives as Fackham Hall, a Downton Abbey spoof that pokes fun at the easily mockable airs of wealthy English costume epics. Penned in part by UK-Irish comic Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the film has a wealth of source material to work with and exploits every bit of it.

Opening on a ludicrous start and culminating in a outrageous finale, this entertaining upper-class adventure crams every one of its 97 minutes with puns and routines that vary from the childish up to the truly humorous.

A Mimicry of Upstairs, Downstairs

In the vein of Downton, Fackham Hall presents a caricature of extremely pompous rich people and excessively servile staff. The narrative centers on the hapless Lord Davenport (played by an enjoyably affected Damian Lewis) and his anti-reading wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their male heirs in various tragic accidents, their plans fall upon marrying off their offspring.

One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has accomplished the family goal of a promise to marry the appropriate kinsman, Archibald (a wonderfully unctuous Tom Felton). Yet when she withdraws, the onus falls upon the unmarried elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), described as a spinster at 23 and and possesses dangerously modern beliefs about women's independence.

Where the Laughs Works Best

The spoof achieves greater effect when joking about the oppressive norms imposed on pre-war females – an area often mined for self-serious drama. The trope of idealized femininity provides the richest comic targets.

The narrative thread, as is fitting for an intentionally ridiculous send-up, takes a back seat to the bits. The writer serves them up maintaining an amiably humorous pace. Included is a murder, a bungled inquiry, and an illicit love affair between the roguish street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

The Constraints of Frivolous Amusement

The entire affair is in lighthearted fun, but that very quality comes with constraints. The heightened foolishness inherent to parody may tire quickly, and the mileage in this instance expires in the space between a skit and a full-length film.

At a certain point, audiences could long to go back to the world of (very slight) reason. Nevertheless, one must admire a sincere commitment to this type of comedy. If we're going to distract ourselves unto oblivion, it's preferable to see the funny side.