Director: Michael Engler
Distributor: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 122 minutes
Downton Abbey (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Downton Abbey is one of those kinds of series that really know how to catch an audience and keep them longing for more after every season’s end. When the curtain fell after season six, many of us were sad to see the series go, so the news of a Downton Abbey film coming to theatres was quite exciting to hear. As the series was already pretty good, we did wonder if it was worth adding a film to it now, but we must say we were pleasantly surprised.
The film is set in 1927, when Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) receives a letter from Buckingham Palace informing him that King George V and Queen Mary will be visiting Downton Abbey while on their royal tour through Yorkshire. Everybody is quite excited about the news, both upstairs and downstairs. Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) is deliberating the menu, Thomas (Robert James-Collier) inspects the silverware, all rooms are cleaned extremely thoroughly under the watchful eye of Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan). Much to their surprise (and dislike), the staff learn that the King and Queen bring their own household staff, who are to take over for as long as the royals are at Downton, and even a few days before. To make it even worse, almost all of the royal household are quite arrogant to the Downton servants, but let’s just say Mrs. Hughes and the others won’t just leave it at that.
Meanwhile, the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith) is plotting against the queen’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton), who is also Lord Grantham’s cousin. Nothing new under the sun there. Tom Branson (Allen Leech) watches the whole thing a bit from the sidelines, yet his role will turn out to be quite vital to the story too.
The film more or less takes off where season six ended. This means that, if you haven’t seen the series yet, it’s probably best not to watch the movie, but that is only to be expected with a movie that follows on a six season series. The film also stands pretty well on its own though, so you will not miss much at all if you haven’t seen the series.
It’s quite fair to say that the film feels like one big episode of the series. The storyline is not very deep, but is fun to watch nonetheless, and makes sure that all characters get involved. Seeing the cast is quite elaborate, we can only commend Julian Fellowes for a job well done. The main storyline is, of course, the King and Queen coming to Downton, but by adding a few minor storylines as well, Fellows manages to keep things interesting and airy, involving every single one of the characters we’ve grown to love over the years.
When it comes to the acting, the cast of Downton Abbey have already proven their worth more than enough during the previous six seasons of the series. If we’re completely honest, we must point out though, that we have learnt to appreciate Michelle Dockery’s acting more throughout the series, as we weren’t that fond of her acting skills in the earlier seasons. In this film, it’s most of all amazing how Julian Fellowes managed to involve so many different characters in the plot, without losing the storyline or the characters’ personality.
There are quite a few extras on the Blu-ray release of Downton Abbey. There are deleted scenes and a commentary by director Michael Engler, but also interviews with the upstairs and downstairs cast, a recap of the series, and a few insights into how the story came to be and where Julian Fellowes got his inspiration. All together this makes for quite a decent and interesting amount of special features.
Conclusion
While we were quite happy to hear the news of a Downton Abbey film being made, we were also a bit on guard, as we wondered what could still be worth adding to a series like this. Luckily, we found that the film was exactly in the spirit of the series, feeling like one long episode, more than a standalone film. We were quite happy to see that the spirit wasn’t lost, and that all characters really got their part of the story to tell. If you were a fan of Downton Abbey already, this will be right up your alley, as it will feel a bit like coming home. On the other hand, if the series wasn’t your cup of tea, you probably shouldn’t bother with the film either.
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