Downton Abbey: A New Era: Movie Review

Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery
Director: Simon Curtis

There's something to be said for casting a comfy cinematic blanket back on after these pandemic-led times.

And Downton Abbey's latest cinematic outing is certainly hoping for a wave of nostalgia and ongoing love for its characters from the Crawley household and comfortable resolutions drama to put bums back on seats once again. But does it have to be so plum and self-satisfactory, like the previous outing was?

In the latest, it's a case of the house being split into two story camps, as a film-crew comes to Downton to make a movie, while the rest of the cast head to sunnier climes to track down the Maggie Smith's Dowager origins after she's bequeathed a house in the south of France.

The last Downton Abbey film felt like a TV movie writ large. And in all honesty, this latest isn't much better, with its frantic breakneck pace, zipping between the Crawleys in France (including "hilarious" period swipes such as the Brits are coming, and a little bit of xenophobia, because why not) and the Crawleys stuck at home as the frightful acting troupe hits its walls.

In some ways, it's pointless to rail against Downton Abbey now, because it's of its own genre. Those who love the costumes, the witticisms and the barbed bon mots dispatched by Dame Maggie Smith's Dowager know exactly what to expect - but for all other non-comers to Downton's self-contained world, it's almost impenetrable.

It helps little that the whole thing feels like a rush between two worlds, as it zips between France and England, like some kind of butler on an urgent quest for its master. And certainly because of this, one majorly emotional moment towards the end falls desperately flat, stuck between trying to satiate a longtime audience and those casual here-only-as-a-date punters. It avoids farce, and takes the safe route wherever possible, providing a modicum of peril but nothing substantial throughout to really feel like a high stakes movie.

But there are some vicarious pleasures to be had throughout.

Julian Fellowes' script does manage to dispatch some witty oneliners here and there, and there's much to be said for a more nuanced and out there take on Barrow's place in society as a gay man - something the first film failed to properly represent, but which is wonderfully course-corrected this time around.

Ultimately, the problem with Downton Abbey: A New Era is that ironically, it fails very much to enter a new era, but is content to just sit in its own cotton-wool like existence where the emotional stakes are extremely low and the perils are perpetually obvious and easily overcome.

Its fanbase will adore it, wallowing in the wondrous architecture of the housing, the ambience of the end of the 20s and the plum accents of their faves, all dolled up in their very best attire. Everyone else will simply wish that the two hours goes by quicker than it should do if you were able to fast forward it on TV.