Movie Review: Downton Abbey: A New Era

Movie Number 17 of 2022

Movie: Downton Abbey: The New Era

Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens

Stars: 3.5

I'll admit to the following: 

• I'm a Downton Abbey fan - always have been
• I like seeing stories through to their logical conclusion
• I love Dame Maggie Smith - at 87, she's still working and she's incredible. 

So I was always going to go along to this. 

Is it a good film? Not really. 

It is watchable and does it carry the story forward? Yes. 

Do these two facts cancel out each other? Yes.

So the crux of the film is a few years have passed. The Crawley family are offered a lot of money to have the place used as a film set. On the other side of things, it comes to pass that the Dowager Countess, Violet (Maggie Smith) has come into a villa in the South of France after a reconnoitre with a French Lord back before before her son Robert was born. 

And there we have the two strands of the story. 

We start with a wedding - Tom Branson (Allen Leech) and Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton)  - whose romance started during the last film. We see the children - Sybbie, George, Marigold and Caroline growning up. And we get a lot of loose ends tidied up. Some a bit too neatly. Others I'm not sure why they were there.

Then we're treated to the French connection and the mystery of what went on with Lady Violet and the Frenchman - and how the Frenchman's wife (Nathalie Baye) is not fond of the whole transaction. 

As I said, this is not a great film - but there is enough to sustain and keep you interested.  

There are a lot of good things here, once you get past the occassionally dodgy script moment and some of the unnecessarily set up cast line ups (Sorry, I don't like that stuff). 

First up, this has some very funny moments and some great one liners - mostly thanks to the wonderful Maggie Smith. 

Secondly, the very meta movie within a movie, where the house is taken over my a film crew, where a movies is being made. Dominic West and Laura Haddock play the stars of the film to great effect. Hugh Dancy is the film's director and love interest for Lady Mary, seeing her husband is off driving racing cars around the globe (Meaning we miss out on the wonderful Matthew Goode - bit sad about this.) I loved this part of the film and how the soon to be talking films was bringing to an end the careers of the silent film stars. 

And, of course, you get to see the characters you loved so much over the years - Carson, Mrs Hughes, Daisy, Mrs Patmore, Barrow - and my favourite, Mr Molesley. 

This isn't a great film, but it does it's job well - and it finished off what was a great, long running series. 

Personally, I've preferred my intake of Downton Abbey on the small screen, I think it works better on televsion, but still, it's lovely to see these characters, as they are old friends, and for this, I forgive the not so great parts of the film. And the absence of Matthew Goode. 

This is a film that's best suited for fans. If you're not invested in the show, you'll probably think this is crap. 

But if you're a Downton Abbey fan, go - you'll enjoy it. Oh, and as a final warning, take some tissues. They're needed at the end. 

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