Downton Abbey: A New Era | Released April 28th | Dir: Simon Curtis | ★ ★ ★ ½Â
If you’re a fan of the TV series and previous Downton Abbey film, you’ll love this new film that takes us back to the upstairs-downstairs world of aristocracy and their servants.
We pick up the story tracing the lives of the Crawley family and the Grantham estate a couple of years after the conclusion of the last film. All the major cast members return, which is quite an accomplishment when you consider just how many actors are involved in the production.
Creating a story that involves around 30 cast members must be quite a challenge for creator Julian Fellowes, and it’s inevitable that a few fan favourites are a bit short changed, but it’s clear he’s tried his best to give everyone their moment in the sun.
The first episode of the television series began in 1912 with the news that the Titanic had sunk, and now we’re almost two decades later at the end of the 1920s, but the opulence suggests the stock market crash that kicks off The Great Depression is still in their future.
We left the last film with chauffeur turned son-in-law, turned widower, Tom Branson finding new love with cousin Maud, Lady Bagshaw’s illegitimate daughter Lucy. Now the action picks up with their wedding, and it’s happy times at Downton and everyone’s got on their best frocks on.
The action is kicked off by two unexpected events, first a film company has asked to use the family’s house as a location. The older members of the family and their staff are appalled at the suggestion, but forward thinking Lady Mary embraces the idea, pointing out they need the cash to fix the roof.
At the same time Violet – Dowager Countess, inherits a majestic villa in the south of France. The acerbic old lady says she has no idea why an old friend who she only met fleetingly decades ago would leave her a massive house, but maybe she’s not sharing the full story of what she got up to in her youth.
So half the household depart for France to check out the new property, while the other half get ready for an invasion of movie cameras and actors. Oddly nobody ever says “Another house! Heavens, we can’t ever pay for the running of this one!”
The following adventures are filled with laugh out loud moments, and emotional plot twists that long term viewers of the series will enjoy. Robert, Earl of Grantham is thrown challenges that shake him to the core, illness suggests one of the beloved family members is not long for this earth, Mr Carson thinks about whether he could wear a different hat, Thomas wonders if he’ll ever find love in this cruel world that shuns gay people.
Lady Mary ponders if her husband will ever return from his adventures as a rally car driver, Edith considers going back to work as a journalist, Andy and Daisy play matchmaker, and Miss Baxter wonders if she’ll end up a spinster, and everybody asks if they’ll ever finish the movie being shot in the drawing room.
Oddly Mr Bates really doesn’t get anything to do at all, which is surprising giving the massive story lines the character has previously been though., but if you’ve survived being falsely accused of the murder of your first wife, it’s probably nice to have a drama-free life.
There’s certainly a plot strand that borrows very heavily from the musical Singin’ in the Rain, and the attempts to give every single character their own happy ending probably defy belief, but overall it’s a lot of fun.
Into the mix are thrown a few new characters, Hugh Dancy appears as the film director Jack Barber who strikes up a friendship with Lady Mary, Laura Haddock plays glamorous screen star Myrna Dalgliesh and Dominic West plays her suave co-star Guy Dexter. While star of French cinema Nathalie Baye plays the disgruntled widow left wondering why her recently deceased husband has given away the family’s summer home to an English floozie he met in his youth.
If you’re a massive fan of the show, you’ll love every minute.
Graeme Watson
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