The Reel Review
Downton Abbey meets the screwball comedy Airplane! when a lovable pickpocket stumbles into a job at an upscale manor in 1931 England. When a family member turns up dead, all eyes fall on the newcomer as the prime suspect, jeopardizing his burgeoning romance with the family’s youngest daughter. Ben Radcliffe, Thomasin McKenzie, Damian Lewis and Katherine Waterston star in this period parody whodunit.
Fackham Hall is a gleefully stupid and silly send up of the beloved series, elevated by solid production, comedy director Jim O’Hanlon (Catastrophe, Coronation Street) and a very game ensemble cast. More often than not, however, the sophomoric humor feels like a comedy sketch that has long overstayed its welcome, but the otherwise cute (albeit predictable) story does manage to land its fair share of laughs. (The cockney song/pub scene is a standout.)
Radcliffe (The Witcher, Masters of the Air) and McKenzie (The Power of the Dog, Jojo Rabbit) both add charm to the film, and as the family patriarch, Lewis’ completely bonkers hairdo is a laugh in itself. While the film misses the opportunity to be gut-bustingly hysterical, Fackham Hall, with all of its puns, word plays from co-writer Jimmy Carr as the vicar, sight gags, slapstick and dick jokes, is a pleasant enough way to spend an hour and a half.
REEL FACTS
• Despite the running gag that women of the 1930s must marry a first cousin to retain their estates, women have been able to inherit property from their fathers and husbands since 1882, with inheritance laws fully equalized in 1925.
• It is currently still legal for first cousins to marry in the U.K.
• Hayley Mills is the film’s narrator.
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