Mark Reviews Movies: DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA

Downton Abbey: A New Era, Focus Features

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 19, 2022

Screenwriter Julian Fellowes returns to the eponymous estate, as well as its "upstairs"—an aristocratic family—and "downstairs"—the manor's loyal servants—inhabitants, in Downton Abbey: A New Era. Fellowes' sequel to the 2019 film Downton Abbey (of course), which followed the television series he created ("Downton Abbey," also of course), marks a decided narrative departure from its predecessor.

That film held appeal to fans of the series, as it continued the stories of characters whose many trials and occasional triumphs made up part or all of the show's six seasons, and, to a certain extent, newcomers or naysayers. It told a mostly stand-alone story, as clearly established characters at the estate prepared for a momentous royal visit, and played as a smart comedy of manners.

This sequel, directed by Simon Curtis, is doing much, much more, putting together two separate main plots in two different countries. Within those central storylines, we have assorted subplots involving a good chunk of the movie's extensive cast of characters. If the first film possessed a simple through line that allowed its characters to shine over the various complications they encountered, this one is almost entirely about the complications.

There are a lot more of them, too, so unlike the first film, Fellowes' follow-up feels like hours of a season of television storytelling crammed into a single feature. By the end, this part of the history of the Grantham family and their employees also comes across as an insignificant chapter, awaiting some real change to the family and within the history of the British aristocracy to arrive.

It's 1930 or so at Downton, which receives a delayed introduction as the Granthams—led by the earl Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and his wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), although the unofficial power over the estate lies to the couple's daughter Mary (Michelle Dockery) and the real authority rests in his mother Violet (Maggie Smith)—attend the wedding of son-in-law Tom Branson (Allen Leech) and Lucy (Tuppence Middleton). With all of the battling over the fate of the estate settled and now forgotten—never to be brought up again in the movie—with this wedding, the Grantham family enters this decade without much, let alone any real, conflict.

Well, Downton's roof is leaking, and since money has always been an issue for this family, it'll take a bit of fortune to afford the repairs. Enter movie producer/director Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy), who wants to shoot his next project in the manor. Robert is appalled by the prospect but pragmatic about Mary's own pragmatism to take the movie studio's money.

By some more helpful chance, Robert doesn't have to stick around Downton for the movie production. Violet has inherited a vacation home in the south of France from a former admirer. With that, Robert, Cora, their other daughter Edith (Laura Carmichael), her husband Bertie (Harry Hadden-Paton), and the newlyweds, along with a couple of servants (including Jim Carter's mainstay Charles Carson), head to the Riviera to see the family's new property.

That's the split narrative of this story, which is further divided into assorted, hastened subplots of romance and illness and inheritance and other matters of the usual, melodramatic bent. The story in France is a dull, mostly uneventful one, as the younger generation enjoys the spoils of their luck or birth, while Robert soon suspects that he might not be not a legitimate Grantham. That complication, as well as a hastily revealed illness just as the visit is about to come to an end, leads to some doubts and an excuse for some—but not too much—suspense during the third act.

As for the major illness here, that, of course, involves Violet, whose prognosis at the end of the previous film wasn't promising. Since she's not happy with the movie occurring in the living areas of the manor, the character gets to spend most of this story upstairs and off-screen. In the long run, that's unfortunate, and let's just leave it at that.

That leaves the more entertaining story in the hands of Downton's remaining residents and servants, as they tend to Jack and his actors, the polite star Guy Dexter (Dominic West) and the rude but insecure-about-her-Cockney-accent Myrna Dalgleisgh (Laura Haddock). While the manor deals with the big personalities and particular needs of the movie folks, the movie crew has to confront the fact that their silent production will have to become a talkie. Obviously, there are some minor conflicts accompanying this, such as Mary—with her absent husband—and Jack's mutual attraction, cook Daisy (Sophie McShera) and husband Andy (Michael Fox) trying to find a home, and some other romantic prospects among current and former servants, who seem especially shoved into the background of this tale.

Very, very busy indeed is Fellowes' screenplay for the newest installment in this apparently to-be-continuing series (The movie ends with such a substantial event in its overarching story—rendered anticlimactic here—that there's almost no avoiding another follow-up). This means Downton Abbey: A New Era is also an unfortunately divided story that lacks focus or in-the-moment significance.

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