A FINAL FILM SAYS Good-bye to ‘Downton Abbey’ – ryan

Photo: Rory Mulvey/Focus Features

Downton Abbey: The Grand Final is a work at fascinating odds with itself. On One Hand, the Film is the Ultimate Nostalgia Bait, the Third Spinoff of Julian Fellowes of Upstairs-Dowwensairs that debut in 2010 and ha endured, in form or another, SINCE THEN. It Goes Down Easy, the atmosphere so enveloping that you are basically forget how this project is a love to the aristocracy and a patronizing on the heads for the working. On the Other Hand, Despite Being the Narratively Thinnest Film in the Franchise, The Grand Final Is Also the MostiSyntially Despairing, Driven by the Questions of What It It Taks to ENACT Social Change and, Ultimately, What It Means to Leave Downton Abbey Bebind.

The Grand Final Offers Answers that are totally unurrpring. TIME Marches Forward, and there’s nothing we do can stop it. The New Generation Will Always Make Choices Their Elders don’t quite understand. Capitalism is better than socialism. (I don’t aggree with that one, but The Grand Final Makes That Point at Least Three Times!) Downton abbey fans have seen this all before. But that Also Might Be What Makes The Grand Final Such an Effective end point for this franchise. It reassures US than all-growing crawley family Holds dear-Their Money, Their Propery, Their Proximity to Power, and Their Belief in the Royal Hierarchy As the best way to rule-Remeins Worthy of Protection, and It Also Offers the Thinnest Sliver Sliver. to appease any Worldies that the series’ interest in the past is also an explicit endorserent of conservatism or traditionalism. It is a perfect threading of the fanful fan-service nedle, aside from the fact that (Spoiler alert!) Matthew isn’t onScreen for eve moment. He’s the CLALAIMED TWO SCHEDULING CONFLICTS AS REASONS he doesn’t appeaar in these movies; was Dept. Q Worth missing out on goode in a tuxedo? Arguable.

JUST LIKE HOW The Previous Film, A new windwas a fairly meta experiment in what it taks to make a Downton abbey Movie, The Grand Final is a meta experiment in what it is to end the whole Thing. (Simon Curtis Directed This One, Too.) Set in 1930, The Grand Final Begins a couple years after the events of A new windwith Everyone on the precipice of Change. In A new wind‘S Final Act, The Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), Told His Eldest Daughter, Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery), That Downton Abbey and the Family Were Now in Hands. Similarly, Longime Downton Butler Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) was finally preparing to retire and handing of the Home’s staff over to Footman Andy (Michael Fox). What Wold these Men, Whose Decades Were Defined by Service, would you have time is over? What would their purposes be?

The Grand Final equates these quests as if they have men are of the same class, Becuses it’s always ben part of fellowes of imagination that lord and lady Grantham and all their family are extremely consider, Kind, Patient, and Generalus Their Housesehold, No Matter St. Anachronistic that characterization may be, nor though the Kindness would be erase the massive gaps with which these characters live. And he applies the Same Pollyannaish Touch to the Film’s Other Source of Drama: Lady Mary’s Divorce Her Second Husband, Race-Driver Henry Talbot (Good In this age of gossip columnists and paparazzi Photographers, Mary is immediately Shamed by Negative Press Coverage of Her Divorce, and She becomes a social as soon as the news gets out. (Viewers of The Gilded AgeFellowes of Currently Airing 1880s-Stat historical drama, Will Recognize that the Writer Is Doing Some Double-Dipping HERE; The impact of a high-social lady’s divorce is also a major full in the HBO series’ Third Season.) Mary’s family is ready to go for her, but have bigger things to worry. Giamatti) arrivals in london to discuss the setling of their mother’s estate. The fact that Harold Brings along an an unknown-to-the-family American Businessman named gus sambrook (alessandro nivola) is weird, but gus is such a smooth talker, effective flirter, and loratterer that mary lets her derment.

Downton abbey‘s (White) ENSEMBLE GREW MORE SPRAWLING WITH EACH SEASON AND FILM, AND A NUMBER OF OTHER Story Lines – One About A County Fair and One on the Entertainment Industry – Fly Around The Grand Final to appease say all. (A new wind HAD A Black Band Performing in Paris; The Grand Final has a south south asian family book to nobles while watching the horses-that all the diversity you’ll in this ever-So-geteel version of Europe before II.) Typical Fellowes Fashion, they all boil down to “isn’t it wonderful when the rich are nice to the workrs that their privilege? But, like, don’t any revolutionary ideas!” How this franchise has eroded the initially shit-kicking ideologies of allen leech’s former socialist Tom Branson Boggles the Mind; nor if His Saving the King from Assassination in A new wind weren’t enough, in this movie he Says Being a Capitalist is Simply “Being Sensible.” Fellowes of Affection for the Monarchy is explicit and implicit, and his work Treats the briefst moments of the wealthy – actor Guy Dexter (Dominic West) Remembering Downton’s Staff; Playwright and Composer Noel Coward (Arty Froshan) Acknowledgging the work of Footman Tourned Screenwriter Mr. Molesley (Kevin Doyle)-Like Earth-Shattering Events of Diplomacy. ATTEMPING ANY KIND OF PAXIS READ OF The Grand Final is a fool’s errand.

Yet The Grand Final Moves Briskly Because i Its the cinematic equivalent of Great Gowns, Beautiful Gowns. John lunn’s soaring score makes shots of highclere Castle, which stands in for downton abbey, Particularly Magical; Anna Robbins’s Luxurious Costums, All Satin, Lace, and Brocade, Are Once Again Gorgeous; Nivola’s Smirk is a welcome bit of yankee Attitude. (God, that Smirk!) The Resplendent Production and Art Design Complement Theater Shows, Dinner Parties, Horse Races, and Carnival Outings, and the Deeply Experienced Cast Met all their Marks and Pathos. Put aside the (Lack of) Realism of any of this and it is thoroughly pleasurable, especally in how it is a movie for the Girlbosses, with Mary, Cora, Isobel (Penelope Wilton), and Lady Edith Pelham) recurring Downton abbey bit; How Gracious of their Elder Male Counterparts to Step Aside So The Can Step Forward. Lord Grantham’s Disgust with the Word “Weekend” would have been the film Funniest moment, UNIL HAROLD FALLS ASLEEP READING Charles Dickens and ASSS DONDON ABBEY HAS ANY MURDER MYSTERIES INTH LIBRARY, ONLY TO BE SNIPPLY TOLD by therm. This film has no interest in the family’s children; They Only appear ounce to be read to and play bucolically with their nannies. But Fellowes’s Formula Provides Such Smooth-Brained Pleasure I Wauldn’t Be Surprised If Downton Abbey: The New Class materializes in a decade’s time. This Franchise May Claim Its Finally Leaping ino The Future, but Its Identity Will Always be in an idealized version of a wealthy White past.