Fackham Hall
Critic Alec Toombs had a fackin' good time with "Fackham Hall."
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Much like my friend and colleague Christopher Lloyd when he reviewed “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” without having seen a single episode of “Downton Abbey” (his review here), I’m reviewing send-up of the show “Fackham Hall” (in select theaters beginning Friday, Dec. 5) without watching the source of the satire. That said I enjoyed the film in spite or possibly because of my lack of knowledge.
It’s 1930s England and we’re at the titular estate Fackham Hall. Orphaned pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) is commissioned to deliver a correspondence to Lord Davenport (Damian Lewis), but instead stumbles his way into a porter job at the manor.
Lord and Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston) are attempting to marry their eldest daughter Poppy (Emma Laird) off to her creepy cousin Archibald (Draco Malfoy himself, Tom Felton) lest they lose their home.
The wedding doesn’t go as planned and the Davenports scramble by trying to wed their youngest daughter Lucy (Thomasin McKenzie) to Archibald despite her burgeoning romance with Eric Noone (humorously pronounced “no one”).
“Fackham Hall” is directed by Irish filmmaker Jim O’Hanlon (he helmed a handful of episodes of “The Punisher” TV series) and scripted by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr (making his feature screenwriting debut and essaying the role of Vicar), his brother Patrick, brothers Andrew and Steve Dawson and Tim Inman. The movie is a joke machine in the tradition of “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun” with just as many hitting as missing.
Much of what makes this humor work as well as it does is having actors as good as Lewis, Waterston and McKenzie admirably straight-facing their way through the material. It’s especially a treat to see Lewis – who I most closely associate with his sterling performance as World War II hero Richard Winters in HBO’s “Band of Brothers” – make a complete and total boob out of himself.
“Fackham Hall” does wear out its welcome after a while and its jokes don’t hit quite as hard in the final third as they did in the first two. In spite of this I still laughed an awful lot and recommend the movie whether you’re a “Downton Abbey” watcher or not. Between this and the new “The Naked Gun” from earlier this year parody pictures are back and I’m one happy camper!