My Cultural Diet

The wealthy Davenport family is thrilled when their daughter Poppy agrees to marry her first cousin Archibald, since that means they’ll get to keep their fabulous estate. But when Poppy leaves Archibald at the altar, it falls to their other daughter Rose to save the family’s wealth. Unfortunately, Rose has all sorts of crazy notions about being an independent woman, and she also happens to be in love with one of the family’s servants, a lovable rogue with an entirely predictable secret. All bets are off, however, when the Davenport patriarch turns up dead one morning. On paper, mashing up Downton Abbey-style historical drama with ZAZ-style slapstick comedy (e.g., Airplane!, The Naked Gun) seems like a winning proposition. And perhaps it will be someday, but Fackham Hall isn’t it. This might’ve been a hilarious 10-minute YouTube sketch, but when stretched out to 90+ minutes, it quickly overstays its welcome with running gags that soon run themselves into the ground and a surprising number of jokes that just don’t land. I certainly chuckled on several occasions, but honestly, I expected more bite from comedian Jimmy Carr, who co-wrote the script. Even with all of the jokes about incest and bestiality, Fackham Hall is quite tame, and I’m surprised that Carr didn’t opt for a more ruthless skewering of his movie’s blue bloods. To their credit, the cast is clearly game for whatever the script asks of them — Thomasin McKenzie, in particular, manages to look radiant even as she delivers pratfalls and stupid jokes — but it’s just too bad that they weren’t in a funnier movie.

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