Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael and Nathalie Baye
Distributor: Universal Pictures International
Runtime: 125 mins. Reviewed in May 2022
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
| 
| 
This period drama, with touches of the unexpected, brings the life of the Crawley family to its conclusion in an entertaining finale to the affairs of the residents and staff of Downton Abbey. It furthers Downton’s links to the past, and points viewers toward the future.
This British-American historical drama has a new director (Curtis) but for this movie, many members of the original TV series cast return.
The aristocratic Crawley family are still the fictional owners of a large Yorkshire estate. In the 2019 film, the Crawley family and the staff of Downton Abbey received a visit to the Abbey from King George V and his wife, Queen Mary. The royal visit is over and life at the Abbey moves forward in this sequel.
The influence of the characters and events of the Downton Abbey series is major. It was the most nominated non-US show in the history of the Emmy Awards, and stands with Brideshead Revisited as the most successful British costume-television drama of all time. In this sequel, after receiving unexpected news, the family moves from Yorkshire to stay at a luxurious villa in the South of France. Lady Violet Crawley (Smith) has inherited it; her beloved husband has long passed away, and she informs her family about it. Hollywood invades Downton, and the Crawley family escape in cautious comfort to the new villa. However, the man who bequeathed the estate to Lady Violet was a man she knew from her past, a fact not known by the rest of the family, and which comes to them as a shock.
Despite multiple twists and turns in the movie’s plot line, this is a feel-good movie that closes the doors affectionately on characters that have been part of an incredibly successful multi-award winning series. Downton Abbey has created a huge number of devotees that ensures the sequel’s success, and they are looking for closure, which this film provides.
The sequel picks up where the 2019 film ends. Maggie Smith continues her role as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess. Hugh Bonneville returns as Robert Crawley, the 7th Earl of Grantham. Laura Carmichael comes back as Edith, Marchioness of Hexham, Michelle Dockery returns as Lady Mary Talbot, and Elizabeth McGovern comes back as Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham. Nathalie Baye freshly enters as someone, who provides a significant link to Lady Violet’s unknown past, and other new cast members spell out plot details that reflect the Crawley family’s passage to the future.
Somewhat like the 2019 film, the sequel explores the sexual liaisons between the lower, middle and upper classes, the goings-on of wealthy (but now cash-needy) aristocrats, and it continues the gender-identity confusions and social rivalries that once threatened the Crawley’ family’s’ pursuit of the feelings of social importance. Like the original film, it pays enormous attention to set design, and costuming, and pointedly focuses on British preoccupations with the upper class. The costuming in this film is exceptional.
The original film was an ice-cream cake waiting for meltdown, while this film brings it out of meltdown. It does so, however, in an enjoyable, and entertaining way. Smith continues to grandly entertain with her wonderful, acerbic, witty one-liners, and her characteristic non-verbals. This is a film about the Crawley family ‘saying goodbye, but living on’. A heavy dose of nostalgia, sentimentally delivered, tells us clearly there will not be another sequel.
12 Random Films…
