Fackham Hall (2025) Bleecker Street/Comedy RT: 97 minutes Rated R (some sexual content, language, violence) Director: Jim O’Hanlon Screenplay: Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr, Andrew Dawson, Steve Dawson and Tim Inman Music: Oli Julian Cinematography: Philipp Blaubach Release date: Damian Lewis, Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Katherine Waterston, Emma Laird, Tom Felton, Lizzie Hopley, Jimmy Carr, Anna Maxwell Martin, Tom Goodman-Hill, Sue Johnston, Lee Boardman, Tim McMullan, Lily Knight.
Rating: ***
A sign above the front gate bears the Latin phrase “Incestus Ad Infinitum”. There’s a room called the “Masturbatorium”. The one daughter is secretly reading a forbidden book entitled One Shade of Grey. In case you haven’t figured it out, you’re not at Downton Abbey. You probably should’ve taken that left turn at Albuquerque.
Welcome to Fackham Hall, a stately manor that serves as home to the aristocratic Davenport family. It’s also the title of a mostly amusing, sometimes funny spoof of British period dramas like Downton Abbey and Gosford Park. There’s plenty of silly drama going on in this parody co-written by British comedian Jimmy Carr. To wit, the Davenports will be forced to leave their home unless one of their daughters marries the heir to the family fortune, a perfectly awful chap named Archibald (Felton, the Harry Potter movies). Never mind that he’s their first cousin. He’s originally set to marry Poppy (Laird, Mayor of Kingstown), but she ditches him at the altar for a manure salesman. That leaves her older sister Rose (McKenzie, Jojo Rabbit), a strong-willed, independent sort considered a spinster because she’s still not married at 23.
Besides the fact she finds Archibald repulsive (and ridiculous), Rose is in love with somebody else. It’s love at first sight when Rose and Eric Noone (Radcliffe, Pandora) first bump into each other. At Fackham to deliver a letter of some importance, the poor orphan/pickpocket ends up getting a job as a servant. This, of course, makes matters complicated.
Fackham Hall isn’t just a story of forbidden romance. There’s also murder afoot. Somebody has put a knife into the chest of family patriarch Lord Davenport (Lewis, Homeland). Inspector Watt (Hill, Baby Reindeer), the antithesis of Hercule Poirot, is sent to investigate. There are suspects aplenty including Eric. He stumbles and fumbles as he tries to figure out whodunit.
Spoofs are always hit or miss. Sadly, too many of them these days are a swing and a mess. Look no further than last summer’s lame Naked Gun reboot. Worse, (DON’T) look at literally ANY spoof made by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Disaster Movie). They haven’t made one in a while; maybe they finally decided to hang it up and go to barber college. ANYWAY, Fackham Hall is one of the better ones to come down the pipeline recently. Granted, it’s not Airplane. It doesn’t have the rapid-fire delivery of the Team ZAZ comedy classic. Not all of the gags land. Some are overused (e.g. the bit involving J.R.R. Tolkien looking for ideas for a book he’s writing). The same joke isn’t always funny the second or third time around. However, much of Fackham Hall is amusing. It won’t have you rolling on the floor, but it will have you chuckling often with its crude humor, corny jokes and sight gags.
Directed by Jim O’Hanlon (Your Christmas or Mine 1 & 2), Fackham Hall benefits from a game cast led by McKenzie who, it turns out, has a gift for comedy. The New Zealand-born actress gets her fair share of funny bits, but she also has some good reaction shots. The scene where Eric takes her to a seedy Cockney pub is a highlight. Radcliffe plays it somewhat straight as the lovestruck lower-class lad in love. Lewis earns a few chuckles as a character who’s as big a twit as King Charles. Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts 1-3) does equally well as his wife Lady Davenport. Felton effectively makes fun of his bad guy image as the creepy cousin/would-be suitor. Jimmy Carr shows up as a vicar who has a bad way with words.
The audience at last night’s AMC Screen Unseen seemed to enjoy Fackham Hall. I heard plenty of laughter throughout. I was chuckling right along with them. It’s such a delightfully silly movie. I loved the trash-talking old lady. Her profane remarks sound even funnier with a British accent. I laughed out loud at the scene with Watt and his fancy moustache. Oh yeah, there is an Abbott and Costello-inspired bit involving his surname. I saw it coming, but I still giggled at it.
Fackham Hall is a good movie to see when you’re in the mood for something silly, mindless and crude. Fans of Downton Abbey will appreciate more than those who’ve never seen a single episode. Carr and his writers understand the source and run with it, making fun of it in a good-natured way. It’s more of a ribbing than an outright skewering. It’ll never be regarded as a classic spoof, but it’s an improvement over the failed efforts we’ve endured in recent (and not so recent) years.
