Fackham Hall, featuring the aristocratic Davenport family, is a spoof on period films and series like Downton Abby and Upstairs/Downstairs.
Directed by Jim O’Hanlon, it’s a vehicle for a variety of comedy—whichever you prefer: physical, deadpan, goofy, adolescent, satiric, slapstick.
The result is a lot of laughs.
Fackham Hall is an aristocratic British estate that announces the Davenport family motto at its entry gate: Incestus Ad Infinitum. That statement is the basis of the film’s story line, set in the 1930s: the search for an eligible first cousin to marry one of the Davenport daughters so the estate remains the home of and in the control of Lord and Lady Davenport (Damian Lewis and Katherine Waterston).
Lewis—do not think Homeland or Billions—and Waterston ably demonstrate the mental acuity that years of aristocratic inbreeding can produce.
The ensemble cast is terrific. Emma Laird is Poppy Davenport, the younger of two daughters and the first designated to marry. She leaves her prospective groom—first cousin Archibald Davenport (unctuously portrayed by Tom Felton) at the church altar to run off with her true love, a manure collector.
She leaves elder daughter Rose, sweetly and naively played by Thomasin McKenzie, in line to marry their cousin. But Rose falls head over heels in love with Eric Noone (pronounced “no-one” but perfectly portrayed by Ben Radcliffe), a supposed orphan (no spoilers here) who mirrors her affection, innocence, and obtuseness.
Jimmy Carr, one of five credited writers on the film, steps into the role of the church vicar who reads his sermons without punctuation—so his words elide into offensive (but really funny) statements. You need to experience them for yourself.
The estate and village scenes are beautiful, and the musical score by David Arnold and Oli Julian is appropriately monumental and/or whimsical.
All in all, if you like zany film parodies and British humor, you’ll love Fackham Hall. As the credits rolled, a filmgoer seated next to me summed it up: “Well! That was fun!”