Director: Jim O’Hanlon
Writers: Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr, Andrew Dawson, Steve Dawson, Tim Inman
Stars: Damian Lewis, Tom Felton, Thomasin McKenzie
Synopsis: A new porter forms an odd bond with the youngest daughter of a well-known UK family. As the Davenport family, headed by Lord and Lady Davenport, deals with the epic disaster of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin.
Parody can be subtle like a hint of something in the background. It can also be blunt and sit on your chest like an overly large dog who instead of woofing, shouts, “Did you get it?” over and over again. Movie parodies are especially difficult to maneuver. In the ’80s heyday of the genre, they rarely referenced the films they were skewering directly, but built a story around the concept of the original with gags that were simultaneously clever, stupid, and crass. In more recent outings like the “[Blank] Movie” movies of the ’00s the parody is overt, often putting direct analogs from the films they’re skewering into a very heavy gag and non-existent story structure. Fackham Hall attempts to straddle these types of parody with varying degrees of success.
The film has genuine moments of humor. There are several funny gags or line readings that will make you chuckle, but it often relies heavily on crass gags. If you’re a person who likes your silly comedies with more wit, you’ll find with Fackham Hall you get more… toilet humor. It would be one thing if the film relied so much on the low brow, that has its merits as well, but these aren’t new lowbrow jokes, they’re stale and boring. Most of these gags feel cribbed from much better and far more interesting films. Fackham Hall feels very lazy in that way.
The actors, who can pull off some funny bits, also seem to forget to deliver their lines with a bit more sincerity because their characters shouldn’t know they’re in a comedy. Most of them deliver the lines with a bit of a goofy look on their faces, so the gag falls flat. While most of the principal cast have been in comedies before, they aren’t used to this type of comedy or delivery. They rush to get the lines out and when they pause behind it, it’s awkwardly long because they’re hoping for a laugh in that space. But that space becomes a place where our brain catches up with an, “Oh, right, that’s funny,” while it waits for the next gag.
The filmmaking itself, directed by Jim O’Hanlon, is very close to its source material. He and cinematographer Philipp Blaubach have the sweeping vistas of the great manor and the crowded party scenes well in hand. There’s one incredible special effects gag in the film that these two pull off very well. Eric (Ben Radcliffe) is wanting to show up the boorish Archie (Tom Felton) and so he takes the rifle Archie claims is defective and aims it at a beer bottle. It looks as though Eric has missed, but then we’re given the POV of the bullet as it lights a cigarette, ricochets off the dome of a serving tray, back the way it came to open a bottle of champagne, break the original bottle and land in the gun’s chamber with a smug Eric smiling down at Archie. It’s one of the best gags in the film and it feels fresh because of how they shot the scene.
That’s Fackham Hall‘s biggest problem. It feels so stale to parody Downton Abbey, Gosford Park, and other between the wars, class struggle stories. The prime of these stories was about twenty years ago. We’re well past when this parody would have been relevant. Sure the “final” Downton Abbey film was just in theaters a few months ago, but even then, the cultural moment has long passed it by. The concept is as stale as the comedy within.
It’s difficult to judge a film like this as comedy is a very subjective medium. There are going to be many people who laugh heartily at this film. There will be people who believe this film is a terrific time. If you like purely dumb comedy and just want to laugh at something silly, then more power to you. For those of us who have seen Airplane and other classic parodies, this film will feel too much like those. Worse, it feels like the used gum you step in on the street the day you wear your new sneakers. It’s gross and annoying.
