Winter Film Festival - Fackham Hall

Over the past couple weeks, I have been checking out some of the film selections that the Dietrich Theater Winter Film Festival has been offering. I didn’t get to check out all that I wanted to see, so I will be checking them out once they’re available on streaming.

For this review, I took a look at the period comedy “Fackham Hall” and if you haven’t had the chance to see it during the festival, the film is now currently streaming on HBO Max.

When a new porter forms an odd bond with the youngest daughter of a well known British family, chaos ensues and the Davenport family, headed by Lord and Lady Davenport, deal with the epic disaster of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin.

The Winter Fest selection “Fackham Hall” is a fun, silly and relentlessly joke-heavy parody that will really keep you laughing throughout most of the film. The film really delivers a sheer volume of gags and it has a rapid fire style that’s very similar to other spoofs, such as “Airplane” and “The Naked Gun.”

Sure, there could be a joke here and there that might not entirely land. But, there’s plenty of others that make up for the ones that don’t land. “Fackham “Hall” is a breath of fresh air since most modern comedies are afraid to just deliver low-brow laughs and this comedy really does a great job keeping those low-brow laughs coming. Most of the cast, especially Damian Lewis, Tom Felton and Thomasin McKenzie, do a really great job playing along with the numerous silly gags with the necessary deadpan seriousness (almost like the late great Leslie Nielson).

“Fackham Hall” is packed with numerous absurd, hilarious moments that will absolutely have you bursting with laughter. Throughout the film, we see quite a few background puns and gags that some sharp-eyed viewers would notice, like a sign for a tailor shop named “Tailor Swift.”

There’s also a few stand out moments where the Vicar says a few prayers that are not exactly appropriate yet they are also very humorous. Also, if you pay attention carefully to the names of the Davenport sons who aren’t alive anymore, they are actually the

names of the Beatles.

“Fackham Hall” is a British spoof film that satirizes period dramas like “Downton Abbey” and “Gosford Park,” heavily adopting the rapid-fire, slapstick style of the “Airplane” and “Naked Gun” movies. This film is best suited for fans of classic, unapologetic spoof comedies who enjoy having classic tropes poked at with a relentless stream of jokes.

Cast: Thomasin McKenzie (Rose); Ben Radcliffe (Eric); Damian Lewis (Lord Davenport); Katharine Waterston (Lady Davenport); Tom Felton (Archibald); Emma Laird (Poppy); Adam Woodward (Bert Chester); Lily Knight (Fifi Valentine); Anna Maxwell Martin (Mrs. McCallister)

Writer/director: Steve Dawson (writer); Andrew Dawson (writer); Tim Inman (writer); Jimmy Carr (writer); Patrick Carr (writer); Jim O’Henlon (director)

MPA: Rated R for some sexual content, language and violence   (runtime 97 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYq20qwi2iE