Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
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(PG, 123 minutes)
3 stars
Franchises aren't confined to genre movies and cartoons. Julian Fellowes' long-running and popular saga has charted the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants from 1912 onward in a TV series, Christmas specials and now, three movies. Fans will already be buying their tickets and will no doubt rate it more highly than I, a non-devotee, did. Please forgive me, my lords and ladies. I did enjoy it.
The shadow of Dame Maggie Smith, who played the sharp-tongued Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham who knew how to deliver a good line, looms large. The film is dedicated to Smith, who died in 2024. A portrait of the character watches over things, she's referred to many times, and Fellowes and returning director Simon Curtis find another way to include her, too. It's a tribute to Smith's impact on the series, and a bit of fan service.
But there's more to the film than that. Even those who, like me, aren't Downtown devotees, might find as I did much to enjoy in the performances, the lavish costumes and settings, and some of the story elements and characters. Fellowes is having it both ways, poking a bit of fun at the manners and mores and mountains out of molehills on display while also sympathising with at least some of the people involved. There's plenty of keen observation.
It's 1930 and scandal has erupted. At a grand society do in London, word gets around that Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is - the horror! - a divorcee. She must remove herself from the occasion before the royals arrive. Fellowes' tongue is in his cheek, given he knows that we know what later transpired in the House of Windsor makes this furore look very trivial indeed.
But it's not trivial by the unenlightened attitudes of the time. Mary is instantly a social pariah, but her family, including her parents, the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and the Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern), stick by her. They love Mary, and besides, she is going to be in charge of Downtown Abbey if and when the Earl can bring himself to hand things over and retire to the Dower House.
Much of the film is taken up with the fallout from the scandal and a plan to socially rehabilitate Mary. This will involve the very talented writer-director-songwriter-performer Noel Coward (Arty Froushan). He's not the only gay character and here as elsewhere the social commentary is interesting: the love that dare not speak its name is also the love that nobody wants to talk about.
There's also a little something called the Great Depression, whose effects extend even to the upper classes and simply cannot be ignored. Something precious might even have to be sold.
Lady Grantham is hoping that an inheritance from her mother might help. Her brother Harold (Paul Giamatti) arrives from the US with his financial adviser, Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), and some bad news: the money was saved from the Wall Street crash but was still lost. There's something a little implausible in this subplot: it takes a long time for anyone to smell a rat.
Downstairs, things are happening too, among them the upcoming marriage of retiring cook Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol), which gives rise to one of the film's funniest moments. Her replacement is former scullery maid Daisy (Sophie McShera) who is married to new butler Andy (Michael Fox). Rather touchingly, Andy's predecessor, Mr Carson (Jim Carter), is finding it hard to let go.
Daisy and Carson are also given new roles that are at least in part a sign of social change. Lady Merton (Penelope Wilton) wants to shake up the County Fair, which was a a shambles the previous year, and brings them on to the planning committee. She wants some fresh perspectives and, not incidentally, to bait the chairman, Sir Hector (Simon Russell Beale), who's all harrumphing outrage.
This is ostensibly the end, but the previous two films also felt like they might have been sign-offs, so don't be surprised if - assuming enough tickets are sold - we get Downton Abbey: A New Beginning (hey, that subtitle worked for the fifth Friday the 13th). I wouldn't be first in line to see that, but I wouldn't mind checking it out.
