A couple of days ago, my beloved and I finally got to see the new Downton Abbey movie, fittingly called A New Era, which basically means the Grantham family is now entering the 1930’s.
Keeping the spirit of tradition alive, we went by horse and carriage... no ofcourse we didn’t, we rode our bikes to the City theater in the heart of town.
We’ve seen both the complete series and the first feature film together, so it made sense to see this one too. To be fair, even to us, a sequel didn’t seem artistically necessary, as the first one neatly wrapped up everything up in a bow and would have been a lovely send-off for Lady Violet (Maggie Smith), who seemed to be suggesting that the end was nigh.
It turns out, however, she has another couple of tricks up her sleeve. She inherited a lovely (Riviera) home away from home from one of her former beaus. So the second film - directed by Simon Curtis, taking over from Michael Engler - splits the cast in half and gives each its own storyline. Half of the Grantham family and their personnel are send on (a kind of) holiday to France - one of the oldest tropes in the book if, when British, you run out of fresh ideas.
The other half has to stay at Downton, because something newfangled called a moving picture (which involves something horrible sounding like ‘kinematography) will be filmed there, much to the chagrin of Robert Grantham (Hugh Bonneville). Then again, as Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), is keen to point out, the monies will pay for an urgent update of the castle roof, which is leaking buckets of water.
This idea of a movie within a movie isn’t a novel concept either, but if there is one thing a cinephile loves more than movies in general then it is a movie about movies. The opportunity to go full meta on your audience is one not to be missed.
So one part of of the movie is lazy but charming fun, and takes place under the Riviera sun, the other half is more genuinely exciting, especially after production is halted because of financial problems due to the switch from silent to talking movies. But where there is a will...
The cast, even larger now than before, due to the addition of some new faces, all get their moments in the spotlight, which is a feat in itself. Both the art direction and costumes, as well as the luxurious looking cinematography, are as attractive as ever.
All in all, it is a solid three star film that we thoroughly enjoyed as a four star film, because of its pure and unmitigated feelgood factor.
So if and when creator/writer Julian Fellowes gets his chance to turn this current film series into a trilogy I’m pretty hopeful we will be there to see it.