This intriguing ensemble piece entertains as well as instructs in the etiquette of the early Twentieth Century English Stately Home.
Premise
Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), his American wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) and Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) preside over the day-to-day goings on at Downton Abbey, a British Stately Home, while various ranks of mostly amiable servants beaver away downstairs.
The whole shebang is commented on with caustic wit by the Dowager Countess (British national treasure, Dame Maggie Smith) who has inherited a villa in Italy, thus inspiring a trip to inspect it.
Meanwhile, the grand house is in disrepair (cue leaking attics) and Lady Mary invites a “kinematograph” crew in to shoot a silent film, much to the vocalised disgust of Lord Grantham that even the hefty location fee cannot assuage.
Opinion
I had to chuckle when EMPIRE, a UK-based movie magazine, described Downton Abbey – A New Era as “aristoporn.”
For on a level, that is exactly what it is.
In many ways Julian Fellowes’ keenly observed social treatise on the fading pre-WWII aristocracy is a testament to the obsessions with manners, etiquette, dress code and mores that we are led to believe permeated aristocratic society at that time.
Gaze in wonder, for instance, as Carson the Butler reluctantly visits Italy and, trussed up like a roasting turkey for Christmas in the fainting heat, instructs the visiting French waiters in the niceties of British dinner table presentation.
This is an ensemble piece; and readily more accessible I suggest to those who followed the Downton Abbey Series and saw the first film than to those dipping in here for the first time. This movie, so we are told, is intended to be the capstone-dénouement of the whole story so, in a sense, newbies are trespassing on the tail end of the saga.
Nevertheless, the movie does stand on its own two feet.
Everyone’s favourite character is here and gets his or her moment in the narrative uplands.
The downstairs crew are ably represented by Mr. Carson the retired butler, Mrs. Padmore, the cook, Thomas, the butler and Daisy the cook’s assistant.
There is a particularly alluring subplot with Thomas as he, perhaps surprisingly, at last, finds a chance at true love and happiness which had eluded him from the very beginning of the first series.
There are two main plots in this film, and while they weave well into a delightful conclusion, they make for a bumpy ride in Act II where the Italian scenes drag a little. The film is brought up to speed later in Act II by the “Kinema” plot and the intrigues of shooting a film at Downton on the cusp of the talkies era.
The leading kinema lady (Laura Haddock) conveys a standout portrayal of a movie actress under threat in these new circumstances, and, in a way, she steals the show in these contained scenes.
The Downton Abbey franchise has been going for 12 years or more, and it is a testament to Fellowes’ deft writing and direction that almost every character arc is handled to perfection and a tear-jerking conclusion in Act III.
I’m not going to spoil the ending for you, but most characters’ arcs conclude as any well-meaning audience member might wish, giving a great sense of satisfaction, while one final painful twist gives the film a sense of ultimate irony.
It’s perhaps a film best left for the aficionados, but, even so, I was surprised that Empire only gave it three stars (it got an 8.6/10 rating from IMDb). It gets four stars from me because I am something of a Downton fan. If you are a fanatic, doubtless it will get five.
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