Movie Review: Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey *** / *****

Directed by: Michael Engler.

Written by: Julian Fellowes based on characters created by Fellowes.

Starring: Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Talbot), Tuppence Middleton (Lucy Smith), Maggie Smith (Violet Crawley), Matthew Goode (Henry Talbot), Elizabeth McGovern (Cora Crawley), Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith), Allen Leech (Tom Branson), Kate Phillips (Princess Mary), Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates), Imelda Staunton (Maud Bagshaw), Max Brown (Richard Ellis), Robert James-Collier (Thomas Barrow), Raquel Cassidy (Miss Baxter), Hugh Bonneville (Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham), Sophie McShera (Daisy Mason), Geraldine James (Queen Mary), Jim Carter (Mr. Carson), Brendan Coyle (Mr. Bates), Phyllis Logan (Mrs. Hughes), Simon Jones (King George V), Stephen Campbell Moore (Captain Chetwode), Penelope Wilton (Isobel Merton), Susan Lynch (Miss Lawton), David Haig (Mr Wilson), Mark Addy (Mr. Bakewell), Michael Fox (Andy Parker), Lesley Nicol (Mrs. Patmore), James Cartwright (Tony Sellick), Harry Hadden-Paton (Bertie Hexham), Kevin Doyle (Mr. Molesley), Fifi Hart (Sybbie), Philippe Spall (Monsieur Courbet), Perry Fitzpatrick (Chris Webster), Oliver Barker (George), Alice McCarthy (Nanny Harewood), Douglas Reith (Lord Merton), Richenda Carey (Mrs. Webb), Marina Baibara (Baroness Valerenay), Andrew Havill (Henry Lascelles), Eva Samms (Marigold).

 

As someone who has never seen an episode of Downton Abbey, I am clearly not the target audience for the film version of the beloved British TV show, that arrived in theaters last week and was as much fan service as any Marvel movie, with a cast size to match. I saw the film because my wife was a fan of the show, and she seems to be the only woman in North America who has no other female friends who watched the show (she has many friends – but somehow, they all passed on this show) – and so I went in to see the film cold, knowing the music more than I know any of the characters. As a film unto itself, Downton Abbey is fine, I guess. I could follow along with the plot, and got the main character relations fairly quickly, and even found myself entertained, and sometimes amused, by the film – without ever really being involved in it emotionally. I take it that fans of the show really enjoyed it – and that’s good, that’s who it’s here for.

 

The basic plot of the movie is that the King and Queen of England are coming to Downton Abbey to witness a parade, have a dinner, and spend the night. Even if this house isn’t as wealthy as it once was, they still have enough to have an enormous staff, and be able to pull off one of these large scale Royal visits. The staff of Downton Abbey is upset, because it appears that the Royal staff will arrive, and do all of the work – and they will be shunted off to the side. The family itself has its own concerns – the Commoner driver from Ireland, who married one of the daughters, who died in childbirth, is Irish – and a Republican, so perhaps he could cause troubles. The matriarch, Violet (Maggie Smith, who I gather played the same basic role in the series as she did so wonderfully in Gosford Park) wants to sit down with a previously never mentioned cousin (Imelda Staunton) because she plans to leave her vast estate to her maid, instead of to Violet’s son Robert (Hugh Bonneville), who is her closest living relative. And oldest daughter Mary (Michelle Dockery) is wondering if it isn’t time to give up Downton Abbey, and lead a more normal life. And there are more subplots – many, many more subplots – that all play out of the two-hour runtime of the film.

 

I think one of the problems with the film is that film is simply a different medium from TV. In TV, you can have these types of enormous casts, because you don’t really need to give them all screen time and subplots every episode – sometimes, you’ll likely barely see some major characters for a few episodes, etc. But in a two-hour film, that is perhaps meant to be the last time we ever see these characters (which, given the box office success, I doubt) you have to squeeze everyone in, so that no fans favorite characters are left out. When you add in the fact that they also have to add in many more characters – not just the King and Queen, but their daughter, her stick-in-the-mud husband, their staff, the aforementioned cousin and her maid, etc. – and it sometimes feels like the movie is made up of a bunch of 30 second scenes jammed together to ensure that everyone gets something to do.

 

This is what made me think of the last two Avengers movies – Infinity War and Endgame. Yes, some characters get more screen time than others, but everyone needs to get their face in there – everyone needs their moment, etc. It all leads to so many subplots, that it risks not being a movie with anything really to say. Overall though, I think Downton Abbey threads the needle nicely. It’s a fun little film, even for someone like me, who senses as they watched that they are missing much of the fun, because they don’t have to backstory to make any of this connect. I left mainly having a good time, without really wanting to venture back and watch six seasons of television to figure out everything I missed.