Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 37 minutes, Director – Jim O’Hanlon
To remain in Fackham Hall the Davenport sisters (Thomasin McKenzie, Emma Laird) must maintain tradition and marry a fitting suitor (and first cousin) (Tom Felton), however new hall boy Eric (Ben Eadcliffe) could change things.
For those who have seen the opening of any episode of 8 Out Of 10 Cats, its Does Countdown spin-off or even the annual Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, or simply anything hosted by Jimmy Carr, you’ll likely have seen his selection of quick ‘your mum’ jokes which tend to kick off each episode. They raise a light chuckle to ease into the show, but are, of course, never the highlight. With a co-writing credit on Fackham Hall (one of four total writers) this Downton Abbey spoof feels very much like 90-minutes of these gags – with Carr himself making an appearance as a vicar.
Not entirely made up of crude humour, although there is a good deal of it throughout (which isn’t alone a negative), Fackham Hall strikes best when it captures the fast-pace, almost throwaway nature of gags in classic spoof films that it clearly takes some inspiration from. While many jokes are spoiled by the fact that the punchline can be seen coming from the drawn-out build-up, the snappier lines throughout made up of wordplay and misunderstandings tend to gain healthy chuckles (when told that people’s presence are requested in the drawing room Katherine Waterston responds “but we have nothing to give him”) amongst frequent reminders of the Davenport family’s aristocratic tradition of marrying first cousins.
In this case, sisters Pippa (Emma Laird) and Rose (Thomasin McKenzie) are expected to marry a suitable gentlemen if their family is to stay living in the grand Fackham Hall estate. However, both are swayed away from Tom Felton’s Archibald by other loves. We particularly see Rose’s interest in recently-arrived hall boy Eric (Ben Radcliffe), arriving at the manor from the orphanage where he grew up, with a secret letter to give to Lord Davenport (Damian Lewis). Over time the screenwriters shift from less a Downton parody and more targeting the wider work of Julian Fellowes, a sudden murder-mystery turn in the narrative brings about feelings of Gosford Park.
It’s at this point that the film embraces silliness more rather than near crude for the sake of shock or crude, lacking humour which constructs a lot of the first half’s faltering gags. A lot of jokes in this first half in particular fall flat and the silence they’re met with can be deafening, especially when the set-up is so lengthy and obvious. As things go on there are more chuckles to be found, the gap between them seemingly decreasing over time, but even that’s a very gradual shift. And even noticeably good wordplay on signs doesn’t quite manage to gain a response simply because of the stumbles in the surroundings.
The aristocracy and clear period drama inspirations primed for spoofing certainly help the film along, but at times can also hinder it when it goes for gags that largely involve dropping a dirty joke into the upper-class surroundings. When almost ‘blink’-and-you’ll-miss-it questions and wordplay are fired that’s where the more enjoyable gags which actually gain a laugh to be found. It’s just unfortunate that they’re not more frequent and showing off the lengthy gaps between certain laughs. Luckily, there are at least a couple more laughs than references to the aristocracy marrying first cousins.
Producing laughs with intermittent snappy wordplay, Fackham Hall’s effective gags are certainly spaced out amongst the more obvious ones which are given away in the lengthy set-up which unfortunately hold things back from being simply more enjoyable.
Just A Little Bit Random 