In Fackham Hall, a new porter forms an odd bond with the youngest daughter of a well-known English family, as they deal with the epic disaster of their eldest daughter’s wedding. Source: Australian Catholics.
I really enjoyed this spoofy take-down of the upstairs/downstairs lives of the aristocracy and their servants.
With many of us familiar with the shenanigans of Downton Abbey, this film is funny and silly, has sight gags and couple of clever lines and the odd laugh out loud moment.
Set in 1931, the plot centres on the need to marry well to retain the family’s magnificent stately home and its estate. Knowsley Hall in Merseyside was used as Fackham Hall and lends its sumptuous interiors to the sense of insulated privilege of the wealthy between the wars.
The film has romance, a murder mystery, class obnoxiousness (poshness and priggery) and plenty to keep your eye on. Some of the clever things are not front and centre, but rather a newspaper heading or signage somewhere or a quick quip.
Poppy (Emma Laird) must marry well to keep the country estate in the family. Her father Lord Humphrey Davenport (Lewis) and her mother, Lady Prudence (Waterston), are desperate.
Poppy is engaged to the oleaginous Archibald (Felton) but she bolts at the altar. Rose (McKenzie), her younger sister, is feisty and forthright and will not be told who to marry, especially when Archibald decides that she will do as his second choice.
Meanwhile, Rose falls for the wide boy orphan Eric Noone/no one (Ben Radcliffe) who has been recruited as a hall-boy.
This film was a lot of fun.
Review by Ann Rennie, Jesuit Media
Fackham Hall: Starring Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston, Thomasin McKenzie, Tom Felton. Directed by Jim O’Hanlon. 97 minutes. Rated M (Crude humour, comedic violence, coarse language and sexual references),
FULL REVIEW
Fackham Hall (Australian Catholics)
