It’s the end of “Downton Abbey.” No, really — this time, it’s right there in the title, “The Grand Finale.” After six seasons, five Christmas specials, three movies and a partridge in a pear tree, this is the end, until the next time writer and creator Julian Fellowes is struck with inspiration.
All joking aside, “The Grand Finale” is a fine send-off for the beloved British costume drama, which follows the ups and downs of the aristocratic Crawley family — and their staff — while navigating the tumultuous beginnings of the 20th century.
While the previous “Downton” film, 2022’s “A New Era,” saw the Crawleys venturing to France and hosting a movie crew at their Yorkshire estate, the key to “The Grand Finale” is that Fellowes doesn’t venture into unfamiliar territory. He keeps us grounded in the smaller social and familial dramas, with a few fun guest stars that nod to the year in which the story takes place: 1930.
What Fellowes has done so well with “Downton” is offer an escape to the past, while using the period setting to comment on issues of contemporary relevance. He produces an appealing tension in the simultaneous presentation of archaic cultural norms alongside issues that feel as urgent as ever. In “The Grand Finale,” there’s the tabloid scandal that swarms the divorce of Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) as well as the ongoing struggle that is Lord Grantham’s unwillingness to pass on management of Downton Abbey to the next generation. (Returning again to the role of the patriarch is Hugh Bonneville.)
We can titter at the shock and horror that some of the characters display at even being in the same room as a divorced woman — Lady Mary is rudely escorted from a ball and asked to hide under a staircase lest she come into contact with a royal — and also empathize with the frustration of a new generation that desperately wants to take over from the old guard and maybe even shake things up a bit. It sounds a lot like the complaints that Gen X and millennials have with the boomers. Some things never change, even if divorce is no longer grounds for social expulsion.
Fellowes isn’t exactly subtle with the messaging in his final chapter. American uncle Harold (Paul Giamatti) declares it’s more comfortable to live in the past. Fellowes gets even more self-reflective with the character of Molesley (Kevin Doyle), who progressed from footman to screenwriter in the last film and now demands the recognition that he believes he deserves. You have to laugh when Molesley declares to camera that screenwriters are more important than even movie stars. (Heard, Lord Fellowes, an Oscar winner for his original script to “Gosford Park.”)
“The Grand Finale” brings back old friends from “A New Era,” such as film actor Guy Dexter (Dominic West), now in a quiet relationship with former Downton footman Barrow (Robert James-Collier), and their pal, theater attraction and playwright Noel Coward (Arty Froushan), representing the new wave of media celebrities. In a truly delightful, star-making performance, Froushan delivers mischievous double entendres as Coward, practically licking his chops at all the juicy material he finds at Downton for his new plays, whether it’s Lady Mary’s love woes or the inner workings of the “downstairs” Downton staff.
With the late Dame Maggie Smith no longer delivering her usual barbs, Simon Russell Beale has stepped in to represent the traditionalist ways of thinking. Playing Sir Hector who contends with Lady Isabelle (Penelope Wilton) over the planning of the county show, he mightily resists change and isn’t afraid to let her know about it. He also delivers one of the most spectacular line readings of the phrase “beekeepers and bottling fruit,” so don’t worry — the spirit of the Dowager Countess lives on.
In other subplots, the Crawleys need to manage both a financial pickle related to the American stock market crash and a smooth-talking scam artist who goes by Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), who has inveigled Harold into an Argentine currency grift and Lady Mary into a rebound tryst. He is ultimately merely a device to illustrate Lady Edith’s mannered English claws when she scares him off with threats to his social standing, and a way to urge the Crawleys into new management of their assets, but he’s a fun fly in the ointment nevertheless.
With its mix of old characters and new, worldly upheaval and small-town drama, Fellowes illustrates what “Downton” has always done best, which is a social examination of how much things have changed and how they haven’t changed at all. While some of the character work doesn’t quite develop or deepen our understanding of them, or even take them on new journeys, it’s simply a pleasure to visit one last time — or at least until the next one. (Why pretend otherwise?) World War II is only a few years away. Wouldn’t you like to see how the Crawleys tackle that?
Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
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