by Geoffrey Churchman

For fans of irreverent parody like myself this movie overall is a delight. It incorporates lots of slapstick action like a bullet ricochet though minor obstacles to a major one back to the gun’s firer, brawls in a pub and a prison with unexpected conquences, food inadvertantly being tossed and landing on funny places, and so on.

The title is obviously meant to be a homophone of ‘[Stuff[ ’em all’ and set in the early 1930s about the same time as Downton Abbey depicting the relationship between the aristocracy and the servant class inside a big stately manor.

The satirical nature is obvious from the opening scene with the entrance gate’s inscription “incestus ad finitum” or incest forever, where marriages are between cousins.

An accomplished thief, Eric, is tasked with delivering a letter to the Davenport family at Fackham Hall. In the driveway to it he and the owners’ daughter Rose, the future of the estate, in a Rolls Royce coming out lock eyes and collide; they return to the manor and he finds himself unexpectedly landing a porter job there.

It doesn’t descend too much into in-your-face silliness or questionable taste as you can get in American parodies. Despite that I thought some script references to the Beatles fell flat, manor guest JRR Tolkien’s source of inspiration didn’t quite work, neither did modernity such as a Taylor Swift business sign for a taylor and an Alexa quip.

But there are plenty of amusing moments and skits which do work.

The actress who plays the 23-year-old daughter Rose is Thomasin Harcourt-McKenzie who was born in Wellington NZ to actress Miranda Harcourt and director Stuart McKenzie. She is the granddaughter of actress Kate Harcourt and Peter Harcourt.

For some light relief comedy aimed at the nature of the one-time British class system I recommend this! 7 out of 10.

Fackham Hall (97 minutes) is screening at the Shoreline.