THE STORY – Loveable pick-pocket Eric Noone lands a job at a unique English manor house. He quickly rises through the ranks, and a forbidden romance with lady-of-the-house Rose Davenport blossoms. But when an unexpected murder occurs, Eric gets framed – leaving Rose and her family’s future perilously uncertain.
THE CAST – Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Tom Felton, Emma Laird, Sue Johnston, Tom Goodman-Hill, Damian Lewis & Elizabeth Waterston
THE TEAM – Jim O’Hanlon (Director), Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr, Andrew Dawson, Steve Dawson & Tim Inman (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 97 Minutes
If you had the return of glorious Zucker-Abrams-Zucker style parody to cinema screens on your 2025 Bingo card, congratulations. The subgenre, beginning with the masterpiece “Airplane!” continuing through “Top Secre!” and “Hot Shots,” and begetting the likes of “Scary Movie,” may have been killed by a spate of lackluster imitations in the late ’00s-early 2010s, but received a shot in the arm this summer in the form of Akiva Schaffer’s “The Naked Gun“ update. Anchored by Liam Neeson’s gruff deadpan (the perfect successor to original series star Leslie Nielsen), the film got a lot of laughs by tackling every ridiculous line of dialogue and plot point with complete seriousness. That’s an essential ingredient in the ZAZ formula, one that too many parodies ignore in favor of loudly pointing and laughing at the object of their parody. To be sure, that’s also an important part of parody, but in too large doses, it can make the parody seem smug. In order for parody to be at its most effective, the parodists have to love the material they’re parodying genuinely, and far too many of them don’t.
Enter “Fackham Hall,“ a British drawing-room parody conceived by some of the most prolific comedy writers in the UK. While the screenplay takes numerous deserved potshots at upstairs/downstairs period dramas like “Downton Abbey,“Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries, and British society in general, it’s all done with obvious affection by people who know what they’re parodying inside and out. As smart as it is, though, it never forgets to be gut-bustingly funny. Nearly every square centimeter of “Fackham Hall“ is covered with jokes of all sorts: Wordplay, visual gags, and physical bits, in every part of the frame and often working on multiple levels. Not everything works, but the percentage of hits is so impressively high that it may be the most you’ll laugh in a theater this year.
Fackham Hall is home to the Davenports, who have lived there for some centuries. The family’s fortunes have sunk recently, though, as all four sons of the current Lord and Lady Davenport (Damian Lewis and Katherine Waterston) have died in unfortunate historic accidents, leaving the family with money troubles that can only be solved by finding a suitably wealthy cousin to marry one of their two daughters. Eldest daughter Rose (Thomasin McKenzie) is a vile, ugly spinster at the ripe old age of twenty-three. Still, beautiful younger daughter Poppy (Emma Laird) seems pleased as punch to marry her cousin Archibald (Tom Felton) in order to secure the family’s fortune and future at Fackham Hall. Meanwhile, an adorably precocious Dickensian orphan named Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) has been tasked with delivering an important letter to Lord Davenport, but instead finds himself hired as staff at Fackham Hall by the conciliatory butler Cyril (Tim McMullen) and dour housekeeper (Anna Maxwell Martin), and through a series of mishaps, works his way far enough up the ladder to serve Rose tea, whereupon they’re both struck by love at first sight. But can a member of the British aristocracy find happiness with a member of the lower classes, particularly one who’s a literal no one?
Admittedly, much of the credit for the film’s success must be attributed to its screenplay. That’s where the jokes come from, after all. However, director Jim O’Hanlon does more than just film the actors saying the funny lines and making the funny pratfalls. He perfectly captures the look and feel of “Downton Abbey,“ the screenplay’s primary target, and seamlessly navigates the sudden shift into Agatha Christie territory in the film’s second half. Getting such an accurate likeness on a fraction of the budget is impressive enough, but O’Hanlon goes a step further, staging the comedic bits with such aplomb that you don’t even have to be a fan of “Downton Abbey“ in order to get the jokes. Credit to the writers on that front, too, but O’Hanlon proves his worth early on with a bit that starts in the background of one shot, enters the next shot audibly before it does visibly, then moves from the background to the middle ground before finally ending in the foreground at the exact moment that both the bit and the scene’s expository dialogue hit peak intensity. This flawless comedic escalation is present throughout the film, and it’s a joy to witness.
The large ensemble plays its parts with aplomb, with no one performer standing out above the rest. McKenzie has the biggest role, and her guileless charm makes her a winning presence. A scene where Eric takes Rose to a local pub where she must pretend to be a proper cockney rests almost entirely on her comic abilities, and she aces it. Radcliffe has a movie star’s charisma and the jawline to match, so he’s never entirely believable as an orphan from the hardscrabble streets of London, but he sells the wide-eyed innocence that overcomes Eric when he begins his time at Fackham Hall. Lewis and Waterston perfectly ape Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth Montgomery’s Lord and Lady Grantham, as do McMullen and Martin with Jim Carter and original “Downton Abbey“ cast member Siobhan Finneran. Waterston and Martin’s way with cutting dialogue sells the screenplay’s most venomous insults, and Lewis sells the film’s most ridiculous bit, in which Lord Davenport seems to be repeatedly shot on a hunting trip, only to discover that a perfectly placed item on his person has stopped the bullet with ease. Credit to casting director Elaine Grainger for finding an actual “Downton Abbey“ alum to cast in the one role that really requires one: Sue Johnston, the erstwhile Miss Denker, who brings great imperiousness to the dowager Great Aunt Bonaparte. Outside the walls of Fackham, co-screenwriter Jimmy Carr makes a memorable impression as a vicar prone to blowing past the punctuation in his sermons to hilarious effect, and Tom Goodman-Hill brings perfect pomposity to the fancily mustachioed Inspector Watt, who becomes the subject of a fantastically funny “who’s on first?”-style routine.
Carr, alongside Patrick Carr and the Dawson Brothers (Andrew and Steve Dawson and Tim Inman), has constructed the screenplay as a near-perpetual joke machine, with something hilarious in practically every shot. Hardly a second goes by without something to laugh at, whether a small chuckle (the way the Davenports pronounce Cyril’s name as something more akin to Siri) or a big belly laugh (pay close attention to what the Bechdel sisters always talk about). Not everything works, though, most notably the most anachronistic humor. A shot of the kitchen staff chopping herbs that ends with one of them rolling joints is cute, but Great Aunt Bonaparte’s meme-speak asides simply don’t fit. Not coincidentally, those anachronisms feel like the only moments in the film that truly pander to the audience, a naked attempt to be hip that simply isn’t in the film’s wheelhouse. Thankfully, those moments are few and far between, leaving the majority of “Fackham Hall“ a Downton-aping delight. The British period drama is ripe for parody, and based on how successful “Fackham Hall“ is at nailing its targets, let’s hope a sequel gets greenlit soon.
