{"id":31946,"date":"2025-09-27T11:45:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=31946"},"modified":"2025-09-27T11:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:56:08","slug":"downton-abbey-the-grand-finale-is-a-film-to-offer-closure-for-the-long-running-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=31946","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDownton Abbey: The Grand Finale\u201d Is a Film To Offer Closure For the Long-Running Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Review by Brad Balfour, Arts Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Film: \u201cDownton Abbey: The Grand Finale\u201d
Director: Simon Curtis
Screenwriter: Julian Fellowes
Cast: Simon Russell Beale, Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy,
Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Kevin Doyle, Michael Fox, Joanne Froggatt, Paul Giamatti, Harry
Hadden-Paton, Robert James-Collier, Allen Leech, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Lesley Nicol, Alessandro Nivola, Dominic West, Penelope Wilton, Arty Froushan, Joely Richardson, Paul Copley, Douglas Reith
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True to its title, \u201cDownton Abbey: The Grand Finale\u201d was created to offer a proper conclusion to the long-running franchise after its 14 years of development. With director Simon Curtis returning, the film presents a seamless continuity with the series\u2019 past, including a showing of the late Maggie Smith\u2019s unforgettable character, Violet Crawley \u2014 the Dowager Countess of Grantham \u2014 who frequently loomed over the narrative. The film fittingly ends with a dedication to the late actress who established a personality so impactful that she helped make the franchise a success.
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As Paul Giamatti\u2019s character said in this film, \u201cSometimes I feel that the past is a more comfortable place than the future.\u201d For a fan like myself, part of the attraction to the series is knowing that the world is no longer like the Downton Abbey world of class and status. One can, happily so, that the world is not so defined by all these class distinction and the minutiae of behaviors and manners that accompanied it.
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During the long-running franchise \u2014 it included six television seasons and three theatrical films \u2014 evolving societal change underpinned its expansive narrative. In this installment, set in 1930, we learn that nearly all the familiar characters return for this swan song (save, of course, the dead ones, who actually do show up in one form or another.) While it reprises familiar themes, its subtle humor and elegant dramatics have made it such a success \u2014 so much so in this film as well. It also creates a sense of foreboding in knowing what will be coming as the 1930s take place.
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There is one new character, however, that gives \u201cDownton Abbey: The Grand Finale\u201d an additional comedic twist. He\u2019s a real-life personality who lends the film a further heightened sense of reality. That person is the legendary dramatist\/author and actor Noel Coward (well played by Arty Froushan.) He comes in to prod this encrusted and stultifying social system into loosening up with humorous barbs and witticisms that provoke reaction and free thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1930, several members of both the upper-crust and servant-class of Downton attend a performance of Coward\u2019s \u201cBitter Sweet\u201d \u2014 an operetta produced in London\u2019s West End. (The latter are sitting up in the rafters.) Although everyone is having a fine time, it soon becomes clear that there\u2019s trouble brewing, especially when Dowton\u2019s owner Robert (Hugh Bonneville), wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) and daughter Mary (Michelle Dockery) attend a high-society ball. The scandalous news of Mary\u2019s divorce becomes public, so she becomes an instant pariah and is ordered to leave by the officious hostess (Joely Richardson) \u2014 which Cora does, though not happily.
 
Not much later, Cora\u2019s brother Harold (Giamatti) arrives from America. It seems that he has lost nearly all of his and Cora\u2019s late mother\u2019s fortune \u2013\u2013 after having been given bad advice by his slick-talking financial adviser Gus Sambrook (Allesandro Nivola). That puts Downton Abbey in dire financial straits. Mary doesn\u2019t learn about that until after she has had a one-night stand with Gus, whose American charm provides a temporary respite from her angst-ridden situation.
 
As is customary in the Downton universe, comical and dramatic subplots abound. They include the impending retirement of butler Carson (Jim Carter), who all too reluctantly hands over the reins to his respectful but eager replacement, Andy (Michael Fox.) Andy isn\u2019t shy about doing things differently. 
 
Another plot twist is tied into the upcoming County Fair, now led by Isobel (Penelope Wilton.) She shakes things up by inviting Carson and cook Daisy (Sophie McShera) onto the board. This intrusion of lower classes doesn\u2019t sit well with certain County Fair officials, especially pompous snob Sir Hector Moreland (Simon Russell Beale) whose dialogue is one big \u201charrumph.\u201d
 
Cora\u2019s effort to restore her daughter\u2019s reputation by throwing a grand party, provides another plot twist, since various neighbors refuse to attend. That is until Mary\u2019s enterprising sister Edith (Laura Carmichael) invites Coward, in whose show their friend Guy Dexter (Dominic West) is appearing. News of Coward\u2019s impending attendance, spread by the area\u2019s servants, results in a triumphant event in which Coward not only sings a song but also, upon hearing of Mary\u2019s divorce, dreams up the plot for \u201cPrivate Lives\u201d \u2014 one his great classic comedies about manners and social classes.
 
It\u2019s a lot to take in, and there are times when one longs for the more languorous pace of the series. But Julian Fellowes\u2019 always witty script proves a pleasure throughout. So the conclusion of the series brings to a close the on-going dramas infused in all the characters and their particular issues. The beautifully written and performed scenes make clear that the enduring friendships among these people of very different classes, demonstrates the enduring power of the franchise at its best.
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