.

Here we are with what is clearly being set up as the last Downton Abbey movie. With so many film series being constantly revived at the moment it remains to be seen if this will genuinely be the case (Jurassic Park has ended and come back twice and Indiana Jones went on two more crusades after his ‘last’ one) but if we take it at face value then this is the final chance for them to put something in these movies that was there in the best of the six years of the TV series. What it is that both of the previous two films have lacked that the show most definitely had when it dealt with WW1, Spanish Flu, sexual assault, miscarriages of justice, social change, financial ruin, illegitimacy and vehicular fatality, as well as all the romance and genuinely touching familial and pseudo-familial relations, is substance. The movies were great for existing fans, it was wonderful to see the beloved characters again, but with Royal visits, trips abroad and the shooting of a movie in the house (meta much?), they were at best just fluff. At worst, and I’m thinking of the service staff drugging the King’s chef and Mr. Mosley becoming a Hollywood screenwriter, they were contrived and silly. Admittedly there was an assassination plot in the first one but it was very under baked.

So have they? Is Downton Abbey on the big screen finally dealing with proper rounded out issues like it so often did on the telly?

Erm!

Yeah, kind of.

As you would suspect given the title, this film centres around moving all of the characters on to the next part of their lives, thereby closing off at least this chapter. As such the focus is on change, both personal and social. To some extent or other the whole fifteen years of this story has looked at the passing of the aristocracy but here it comes a bit more to a head. There is some drama around the families financial stability but no one is cast out of their stately home, least of all Edith whose immense wealth seems to be ignored for the sake of the plot, rather we see the power and values of the underclasses tentatively on the rise. 

This finds some expression in a subplot about Mr. Carson, Daisy and Isobel wrestling control of the organisation of the County Fair from a stuck up dignitary, but mostly it is in the treatment of Lady Mary following her recent divorce and how the liberal values of the masses win out against the influence and higher standards of the Upper Classes. It is here that the film has some real value. 

It is interesting to see Mary finally suffer scandal, her having escaped it so many times in the past, and it is significant that now that it has eventually caught up with her it is not through her own indiscretions. The way this is handled is believable and brings something to proceedings that has been lacking. This still fights for screen time against dinner parties, trips to the races and evenings out in the city but it is enough to lift this above the previous films. Crucially none of what fills the rest of the two hour movie is as frivolous as before either. There is a call back to Mosley’s new career that I could have done without and some of the moments with Noel Coward (yep) are a bit on the nose but generally this all feels, if not really substantial then certainly more consequential. 

Whether you feel this gives this third movie genuine weight or not, it is enough. This time there is nothing to apologise for and we are free to appreciate the (apparent) end to these people’s story. I for one I loved it. The last two movies ranked around the high forties in my films of the year lists for 2019 and 2022 but at this mid point this one is cracking the top ten. I mean, I am a fan and if you’re not then there probably isn’t a great amount here for you but if you have followed the residents of this famous house up until this point then this is a wonderful send off. 

The thing the previous movies did get right was the balancing of the huge ensemble cast and once again all of your favourites get their moment. I’m still not convinced we won’t see a spin off, an ‘early years’ or a ‘next generation’ at some point but for now this delightfully celebrates and honours everything that has come before, and that we’ll be left with. It does of course suffer for the absence of Maggie Smith but this is acknowledged.

We got there in the end then (although still not convinced it is the end); this is the Downton Abbey film we’ve been waiting for.