Directed by Simon Curtis | Written by Julian Fellowes | 123 min | ▲▲▲ | Amazon Prime
Just when you might have thought Downton Abbey departed the cinematic stage, it’s back for one last hurrah. This is after the better-than-it-needed to be Downton Abbey: A New Era and the just OK Downton Abbey, the first two film versions of the wildly popular TV soap.
I don’t see the point in explaining the backstory of this ridiculously wealthy family and their enormous passel of servants for this review — by now you’re either in the Downton camp or you’re not. Do not bother to watch this if this is your first time engaging with this material — go back and watch the six seasons of the 2010 show on Britbox or Netflix and, if it works for you, then approach the movies.
Fans will be happy to know that this return to the towering Yorkshire-based estate in 1930 — which actually starts on London’s West End stage with a Noel Coward play — is mostly a worthy end to the franchise, even though the material might’ve been better served by three more seasons of TV than three feature films. Still, mustn’t grumble.
The wildly low-stakes scandal that plagues them this time circles Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) — she’s getting a divorce, news of which breaks while the family is in London taking in “the Season.” Will it make her a social pariah in society, compromising her ability to be the Mistress of Downton? Good heavens!
This as her Uncle Harold (Paul Giamatti) appears from America with advisor, Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), reporting of the extended family’s financial calamity in the States, throwing the entire future of Downton into doubt. Below stairs the staff is seeing a generational shift as well, with house cook Daisy (Sophie McShera) taking over from Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol), house butler Mr Parker (Michael Fox) taking over from Mr Carson (Jim Carter), and Mrs Bates (Joanne Froggatt) about to have a baby.
Themes of changing times play a big role, as they have the last couple of movies, but when one of the biggest conflicts comes from whether a stuffy local type (Simon Russell Beale) will accept changes to the form and function of the county fair, you know you’re in safe hands here — nothing too terrible will happen to anyone you care about in this last venture. We’ll never again have to weather the emotional trauma of the death of Cousin Matthew — in fact, best not to speak of it.
Does the film miss the presence of series MVP, the late great Maggie Smith as Violet, the Dowager Countess? Of course, how could it not? But series writers/guides Simon Curtis and Julian Fellowes never venture too far from the comfortably tested formula for the rest of these characters, each of them getting a moment or two to remind us why we fell in love with them in the first place before sending them off doing slightly better than when they started, presumably happy ever after.
