A Look at Fackham Hall – A Brisk, Witty Takeoff on Downton That's Delightfully Ephemeral.

Perhaps the sense of uncertain days around us: following a long period of dormancy, the spoof is enjoying a resurgence. The recent season saw the re-emergence of this unserious film style, which, in its finest form, mocks the self-importance of pompously earnest genres with a flood of heightened tropes, visual jokes, and stupid-clever puns.

Frivolous periods, it seems, give rise to deliberately shallow, gag-packed, welcome light fun.

A Recent Offering in This Goofy Resurgence

The most recent of these absurd spoofs arrives as Fackham Hall, a takeoff on the British period drama that needles the easily mockable airs of gilded English costume epics. Co-written by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and overseen by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature finds ample of material to work with and uses all of it.

Starting with a ridiculous beginning to a ludicrous finish, this amusing silver-spoon romp fills every one of its 97 minutes with jokes and bits running the gamut from the juvenile all the way to the genuinely funny.

A Send-Up of Aristocrats and Servants

In the vein of Downton, Fackham Hall presents a pastiche of extremely pompous the nobility and excessively servile help. The narrative centers on the incompetent Lord Davenport (brought to life by a delightfully mannered Damian Lewis) and his literature-hating wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their children in a series of calamitous events, their hopes now rest on securing unions for their two girls.

One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the dynastic aim of an engagement to the right first cousin, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). However after she withdraws, the burden transfers to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), considered an old maid already and who harbors radically progressive ideas regarding women's independence.

The Film's Comedy Succeeds

The spoof fares much better when satirizing the stifling expectations placed on Edwardian-era ladies – an area often mined for self-serious drama. The archetype of proper, coveted femininity provides the richest comic targets.

The narrative thread, as one would expect from a deliberately silly spoof, is secondary to the gags. The co-writer serves them up coming at a consistently comedic clip. Included is a murder, a farcical probe, and a forbidden romance featuring the charming pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

A Note on Pure Silliness

The entire affair is in the spirit of playful comedy, but that very quality comes with constraints. The amplified silliness inherent to parody may tire quickly, and the comic fuel on this particular variety diminishes somewhere between a skit and a full-length film.

After a while, audiences could long to retreat to a realm of (very slight) reason. Nevertheless, it's necessary to respect a genuine dedication to the craft. Given that we are to entertain ourselves to death, we might as well see the funny side.