Fackham Hall Review: Damian Lewis and Katherine Waterston Lead Disposably Fun Downton Abbey Spoof

The longer it went on, and especially when it transferred to the big screen, Downton Abbey almost seemed to become a parody of itself. This presents a challenge for the creators of Fackham Hall, a loving send-up that attempts to do for that period-piece English drama what Scary Movie did for Scream, what Airplane! did for disaster movies, what the Austin Powers films did for James Bond, etc. It’s a time-honored cinematic tradition dating all the way back to the beginnings of film, as evidenced by 1905’s The Little Train Robbery, featuring an all-child cast, which lampooned The Great Train Robbery. (Both were made by Edwin S. Porter, who must have had a good sense of humor.)

The inspiration of British comedian Jimmy Carr and his writer/producer brother Patrick Carr, Fackham Hall is unlikely to enter the pantheon of great movie spoofs. But it offers sufficient laughs to amuse Downton Abbey fans, and its timing is good, arriving just months after that franchise’s supposedly last cinematic installment.

Like most movie spoofs, this one relies on quantity over quality, meaning that if you don’t find one joke funny you can rest assured there’ll be another one just a few seconds later. The team of five writers pack so many visual and verbal gags into the proceedings that some of them inevitably land, compensating for the profusion of groaners.

It helps that director Jim O’Hanlon has cast the film with real actors who could easily appear in a straight version of the material, rather than comedians who would immediately let you know that they’re in on the joke. Damian Lewis, not exactly known for his comedy stylings on such shows as Band of Brothers and Homeland, is a hoot as the very dim Lord Davenport, whose hairstyle is a sight gag itself. Katherine Waterston plays it very straight as the prim Lady Davenport, while Thomasin McKenzie brings sweetness to her role as their daughter Rose who falls in love with Eric (an appealing Ben Radcliffe), Fackham Hall’s new employee, who’s also a skilled pickpocket and con man.

Filmed at an actual estate in Liverpool that almost, but not quite, equals the one in Downton Abbey in terms of grandeur, Fackham Hall gets the stylistic details right, from the period-perfect settings and costumes to Oli Julian’s romantic score to the arch narration delivered by Hayley Mills (who gets a cute “Introducing” credit).

The jokes are often too obvious by far, such as someone commenting that “he was just a child when he went off to war” to a cut of a little boy in a military uniform. And when a couple newly in love stroll through a romantic setting to swooning music, you eventually see that it’s being played by a chamber music group.

There are also many running gags that quickly wear out their welcome, from the frequent mispronunciation of Fackham Hall as “Fuck ‘em all” to the priest who misjudges the punctuation of his sermons to lewd effect. Other clunkers abound, from an errant gunshot during a hunt resulting in a deer falling out of the sky to a profusion of tired flatulence jokes to a lengthy, unfunny variation on the classic “Who’s on First” routine.

The comedy picks up steam when a murder takes place and the film segues into parodying Agatha Christie mysteries, complete with a Hercule Poirot-like police inspector (Tom Goodman-Hill), who, upon arriving, promptly removes his tacked-on flamboyant mustache. A flashback to the murder, with the victim hilariously taking part in his own demise via a wide variety of methods, proves the film’s funniest scene.

As intended, it’s all very, very silly, and if the likes of Downton Abbey, Gosford Park and Upstairs, Downstairs don’t lend themselves to parody as readily as horror or disaster movies, that doesn’t mean Fackham Hall doesn’t provide plenty of laughs, as long as you’re willing to endure all the jokes that fall flat.