Fackham Hall – Review and Summary
Thanks to brilliant wordplay and poking fun at the aristocracy of the early 1900s, Fackham Hall should be a late entry to everyone’s best comedies of 2025.
Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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What Is Fackham Hall About?
- Director(s): Jim O’Hanlon
- Writer(s): Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr, Andrew Dawson, Steve Dawson, Tim Inman
- Distributor: Bleecker Street Media
- Runtime: Hour(s) and Minutes
- Public Release Date (In Theaters): December 4, 2025
- Genre(s): Comedy, Historical (1900s)
- Content Rating: Rated R
- Primary Language: English
- More Information (External Link)
It’s 1931, and with Lord Davenport not producing a single male heir, it falls on his daughters, Poppy and Rose, to marry a man to maintain their estate. Archibald, their cousin, was seen as the one who’d be best, but mixed feelings over duty complicate him being chosen by either sister. Enter Eric Noone, someone without a title, an orphan, who further complicates matters as he presents the idea of marriage being about love over obligation.
Which, with all that is going on in the estate, is an undesirable monkey wrench for an already dysfunctional family.
Cast and Characters
Lord Davenport (Damian Lewis)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Lord Davenport is the current head of Fackham Hall and is clearly someone who benefits from things being on autopilot.
Poppy Davenport (Emma Laird)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Poppy was the dutiful sister until the option of being with someone she loved came about, and being a bit more impetuous than Rose, she jumped at the chance for love over duty.
Rose Davenport (Thomasin McKenzie)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Rose is a little less bold than Poppy and also older than her, but still not out of her 20s. She hasn’t dated much, to save the family from losing Fackham, but is well-read and able, or at least willing, to be social.
Archibald (Tom Felton)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Archibald is next in line to inherit Fackham Hall, due to the rules/law making it so there can only be male heirs. He is both Rose and Poppy’s cousin, but, because of the way Fackham Hall is portrayed as a movie, that isn’t seen or treated as an issue.
Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Eric is an orphan who stumbles into a job at Fackham Hall, as well as into the heart of Rose.
Vicar (Jimmy Carr)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: The vicar is known for pausing at awkward moments and handling the ceremonies for weddings and funerals.
What To Expect In “Fackham Hall” (Rated R) – Content Overview
- Dialog:
- Cursing: Occasional
- Graphic Imagery or Violence:
- Gun Violence: Occasional
- Violence Against Animals: Yes
- Gore/ Blood/ Body Horror: Mild (Context: Bleeding)
- Sexual Content:
- Nudity: Non-Sexual
- Miscellaneous:
- Drinking: Yes
Review and Commentary
Highlight(s)
The Comedy [86/100]
Let it be noted that Jimmy Carr is one of the writers, and also performs in the film. If you don’t know who Jimmy Carr is, let’s just say he doesn’t do politically correct, enjoys wordplay, loves sarcasm and is a touch mean-spirited. That combination, alongside the work of co-writers Patrick Carr and Andrew Dawson makes a film which will make you laugh throughout.
Will they always be full belly laughs? No. But whether it is Carr as the Vicar, with their awkward pauses, moments of innuendo which will trigger memories of the original Scary Movie, or the type of word play which makes you realize how common sayings can be misinterpret if taken literally, Fackham Hall has something for everyone. So whether your humor leans immature or wants something a bit more sophisticated, you will end up laughing throughout the movie.
On The Fence
It’s The Type Of Film You Enjoy Watching And Mostly Forget A Few Days Later [74/100]
Fackham Hall is made in the same style of an action movie. It isn’t about you growing attached to the characters, their story, but rather the film setting up one joke, then another, then another. The actors, who deliver each line superbly, sadly aren’t given much at all to make it so, when a gag may include someone getting shot, you care if they live or die. When it comes to Poppy and Rose finding and holding onto love, you care more about the journey which contains notable hijinks, vs. them having a happily ever after.
Ultimately, pushing the idea that anyone capable of delivering the lines could have filled the lead parts, just as much as in an action movie, as long as you have the anchor of dinosaurs, robots, or fast cars, it doesn’t necessarily matter whose name is on the poster.
Sometimes, They Milk Jokes For All Their Worth [72/100]
At times, Fackham Hall doesn’t know when to leave something that was funny alone, get a chuckle, and move on. Unfortunately, there are times it wants that full laugh or is trying to get that type of laugh which makes people feel like they have bronchitis. This happens more times than it should, and it makes some scenes, like when Archibald accidently shorts Lord Davenport, feel long as it repeats the same joke, tries to make it slightly different, and drains all of what made the moment funny the first time.
This is in comparison to Jimmy Carr as the Vicar who can do the same joke about a religious figure cursing, being weird, if not creepy, but the moments being spaced out throughout the film to be impactful.
Overall
Our Rating (77/100): Mixed (Divisive)
Similar to how some movies are more about the world than its characters, Fackham Hall is far more about the jokes that can be told than the people telling them. It is all about setup, and once it is made clear who is rich, poor, a religious figure, or an aristocrat, it is far more about that archetype delivering certain types of jokes, than the person’s journey and whether they live, die, find joy, or potentially end up miserable.
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