Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is in cinemas from 12 September – add it to your watchlist. All seasons of Downton Abbey are available to stream on ITVX.
With its aim to wrap up one of British popular culture’s most endearing franchises, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale runs the risk of being a bit of a – if you excuse the pun – downer.
For starters, the passing of Lady Violet Crawley at the end of the preceding film was always likely to remove one of creator Julian Fellowes’ greatest weapons, her withering put downs no more. Of course, her painting still hangs in the grand hallway of Downton, and this film finishes with a touching dedication to the legendary actress who played her, Dame Maggie Smith, following her death last year.
This slightly muted but still warm-feeling third movie, which, like the two previous films, succeeds the long-running TV show, has its work cut out as a result.
Times are a changing, with Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and her divorce causing scandal in polite society. “Families like ours must keep moving to survive,” she says. Meanwhile, Lady and Lord Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville) give thought to selling the glorious Downton estate. “We’ve done our duty,” surmises Lord Grantham. “I’ve given half my life to Downton.” You imagine Fellowes probably feels the same.
Thankfully, the film holds back on the gushing sentimentality, instead introducing some fun new characters, including Alessandro Nivola’s suave American, Gus Sambrook, an acquaintance of Lady Grantham’s brother, Harold (Paul Giamatti), and the ultra-pompous local Sir Hector Moreland (theatre maestro Simon Russell Beale, having a ball here).
There’s also an encounter with real-life playwright Noël Coward (Arty Froushan), who becomes the toast of Downton after a visit (even if the suggestion of how he came up with the title for one of his most famous plays is a little silly).
While Lady Violet is left to merely glower from her artfully framed painting, there’s still some neat humour to be had, including a priceless scene where Lord Grantham visits a potential new residence, a flat seemingly around the corner from the Royal Albert Hall, and is shocked to discover there will be others living above and below him.
"What if I want to go up to bed?" he asks. "You don’t go up, you just go…along," Lady Mary replies. And Downton wouldn’t be Downton without the daft-but-loveable footman-turned-screenwriter Joseph Molesley (Kevin Doyle)
Director Simon Curtis, familiar with it all after helming 2022’s more sun-kissed Downton Abbey: A New Era, doesn’t spare the horses when it comes the requisite glamour, from the opening trip to London, where even Piccadilly Circus looks romantic, to the obligatory swooping shots of Downton and a sequence at Ascot as the gang head to the races for The Gold Cup.
Costumes by Anna Robbins, from the gowns to the tuxes to the glittering jewellery all look glorious too, immediately transporting you back to the period.
As ever in such a wide-ranging ensemble, some characters get a little short-changed, with Lady Mary’s sister, Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) a casualty here. Likewise, Carson (Jim Carter), Downton’s ever-faithful manservant doesn’t quite have the impact he’s made in previous outings, although his line, “London finished me off”, will likely draw a smile.
Arguably, Fellowes’ script is not out of the top-drawer, but then again, it’s nigh-on impossible to bring a beloved franchise like Downton to a truly satisfying close.
There are also nods to past characters, gone but not forgotten, although the nostalgia isn’t tear-stained. At one point, Bonneville’s Grantham quotes T.S. Eliot’s poem The Hollow Men: “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”
It would be unfair to claim this closing film concludes on a whimper. But neither is it quite the grand finale the title would have us believe. More like a pleasant stroll with characters you know and love.
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