Film Review: Fackham Hall

Fackham Hall
Director: Jim O’Hanlon
Mews Films, Anonymous Content
In Theaters: 12.05.2025

We’re just reaching the end of the awards season rush, which means that critics have been watching heavy drama after heavy drama, with the occasional respite for a documentary about Nazis, the conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine or other violence. I really needed a recharge, a laugh and even a reminder of more carefree times. I needed Fackham Hall.

Set in 1931 on the grand estate of Fackham Hall, Lord Humphrey Davenport (Damian Lewis, Band of Brothers, Billions) and Lady Prudence Davenport (Katherine Waterson, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The World to Come) scramble to preserve their inheritance after the loss of their sons in the war leaves them without a male heir. Their plan rests on eldest daughter Poppy (Emma Laird, A Haunting in Venice, The Brutalist) marrying her cousin Archibald (Tom Felton, Harry Potter, Belle), a union meant to keep the property in the family. As the household prepares for the wedding, younger daughter Rose (Thomasin McKenzie, JoJo Rabbit, Last Night in Soho) — a 23-year-old “spinster” — begins questioning the expectations placed upon her. Meanwhile, Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe, Anatomy of a Scandal, Red Sonja), a charming orphan and pickpocket entrusted with delivering a crucial item to Lord Davenport, crosses paths with Rose and is promptly mistaken for a servant. Eric’s growing affection for Rose complicates matters, especially when Poppy bolts from her own ceremony and the family attempts to redirect Archibald toward Rose instead. When an unexpected death interrupts the festivities, the estate becomes a maze of suspects, secrets and shifting loyalties.

The easiest and quickest way to make a bad parody is to make fun of what you don’t like or don’t get, and it’s why the live-action parodies of the 2000s wore out their welcome and killed the genre with embarrassing duds like Epic Movie and Meet the Spartans. If you’re an audience member, the best way to enjoy a parody is to feel a strange mix of glee at seeing something familiar skewered and a touch of defensiveness, because you enjoy exactly what’s being made fun of here. The large but synchronized writing team (made up of experienced British comedians and comedy writers) behind Fackham Hall knows the formula of Downton Abbey, Gosford Park, Atonement and other stuffy but engaging British class dramas. They lampoon while approaching even the most biting humor in a loving fashion. Director Jim O’Hanlon (Your Christmas or Mine?) knows how to stage a good sight gag (the best ones involve simple matters of manners, from standing when a noble enters the room to clanging silverware), and he keeps a crisp pace that doesn’t allow you to dwell too long on a single bit because there may be a better one coming any second now.  Does Fackham Hall stoop to lowbrow, cheap humor? Of course it does, on occasion (Speak the title aloud to yourself in a cockney accent if you don’t get it yet). It also has some smart, well-constructed gags and hundreds of extremely silly ones, and the silliness reigns supreme. Not every joke sticks the landing, but very few just fall flat, either. Some of the most riotous laughs come from the simplest bits, and the commitment to fun above all else is thoroughly infectious.

The women of Fackham Hall are its pillars: McKenzie’s mix of total commitment and cute yet ever-so-slightly self-conscious charm fits this style of humor like a glove. Effortlessly spitting out lines like, “You think I would choose to spend the rest of my life with that pig? No, I shall not and I shwill not!” with complete sincerity, she emerges a new star of the genre in league with Leslie Nielsen or Julie Hagerty. Waterston, one of the most frustratingly and consistently underrated actresses of our time, is spot on as the dour matron who enforces sexist ideas (“Being contrary is the main cause of brain degeneration in women. Ask any male scientist.”). Disney icon Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap, That Darn Cat!) narrates with a tongue-in-cheek stoicism and regal bearing that is the icing on the cake. Lewis, Radcliffe and Felton are clearly having a blast with their over-the-top characterizations, and co-writer Jimmy Carr gets several belly laughs as a Vicar with no sense of timing.

Fackham Hall is a frivolous and even stupid movie with nothing meaningful to contribute to anything, and I’m watching it a second time as I write this review to drink in every glorious moment. I had no idea that I needed a new Naked Gun movie, and even less of an idea that I needed Fackham Hall, but between the two, my spirits have been lifted enough to add another 10 years to my life, and you should never underestimate the power that laughter brings to the human spirit. I shall not, and I shwill not, forget it. —Patrick Gibbs

Read more film reviews by Patrick Gibbs:
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Film Review: Hamnet