Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Downton Abbey: A New Era
The new era refers to the beginning of the sound film, in the late 1920s. How does that have anything to do with Downton Abbey? That's because a movie is going to be filmed in the mansion. The estate manager Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) receives a request from the British Lion Film Production to shoot a film on location. The supposedly silent film is directed by Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy) and starring famous actors Myrna Dalgleish (Laura Haddock) and Guy Dexter (Dominic West). In order to fix the leaking roof, the money paid by the production is attractive. Lady Mary accepts the request, which sets both displeasure from the upstairs and excitement from the downstairs.
Meanwhile, the sharp-tongued granny Violet Grantham (Maggie Smith) announces that she has inherited an elegant villa in southern France as a gift from a French encounter in her youth, and she is going to give the villa to her granddaughter Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael), newly-wed to Tom Branson (Allen Leech). But the deceased French man's widow Mme de Montmirail (Nathalie Baye) challenges the legitimacy of the gift. In order to resolve this matter, Violet's son Robert Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and his wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) head to France to visit the villa, accompanied by their daughter Edith and son-in-law Tom, as well as the respected and beloved butler Mr. Carson (Jim Carter).
At Downton Abbey, the movie production proceeds with ups and downs, including a turning point where the production switches from making a silent film into a sound film. Overseas, the dispute of the inheritance seems to be dissolving in lavish parties, but a new question arises that shakes the core of the family's legacy.
Even though this movie is not in the same league as Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" (2001) (which was also written by Julian Fellowes and won him an Academy-award), it's a charming and entertaining piece that also unfolds stories in both upstairs and downstairs. The subtle exchanges among its characters and the drama inside and outside the mansion are never dull and often humorous. The fabulous Maggie Smith never misses a beat in delivering the best lines in the movies, which are often hilarious.
Telling those fascinating stories that happened in Downton Abbey has become a cultural phenomenon. As soon as the camera zooms in on this luxurious estate, with the recognizable theme music playing in the background, you immediately feel like you are meeting an old friend who will treat you with another delicious afternoon tea featuring a variety of goodies.
In case your memory of these characters are fading or if you have not met these characters, at the beginning of this film, a four-minute recap of the previous spin-off movie "Downton Abbey" (2019) will be shown at each theatrical exhibition, which will be quite useful to give you a jump-start. (At the press screening I attended, there is an additional ten-minute recap of the TV shows, which is nostalgic and amusing.) The film offers plenty of group shots which put these lovely characters in one frame, to be hung on your memory wall.
As if it's hard to let go, the film seems reluctant to finish. It lingers from one extra scene to another at the very end, as if you keep looking back to the place you have visited so many times. Well, who wouldn't?
"Downton Abbey: A New Era" opens on Friday, May 20, 2022.
