Downton Abbey A New Era Review: The Laughter And The Tears Of The English Aristocracy In The Most Metalinguistic Film
Stars: Michelle Dockery, Maggie Smith, Tuppence Middleton
Director: Simon Curtis
Where to Watch: Theaters
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Downton Abbey A New Era Review: Downton Abbey stands proud and imposing, ambiguous in the prevailing silences of its corridors, protected by majestic walls that keep its secrets and guard its traditions. Three years after the first chapter Downton Abbey, Simon Curtis brings to the screen the vicissitudes of the homonymous television series with a sequel, Downton Abbey A New Era, bipartite: the estate, in turmoil for wedding preparations, becomes the set of a sound film , while a sudden inheritance threatens to undermine the balance of the family and the countess mother (Maggie Smith). With Maggie Smith, Hugh Dancy, Michelle Dockery, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye, Hugh Bonneville, Matthew Goode and Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey A New Era hits theaters April 28 with Universal Pictures.
There are not many franchises that, from the television medium, have crossed over into the cinematographic one (or vice versa), and that above all have done so effectively. What saw Downton Abbey continue with a theatrical film after the series finale of the sixth season was obviously a successful operation. The Crawley family’s journey to the gates of the overwhelming news of the previous millennium therefore continues in Downton Abbey A New Era, in cinemas from April 28. A film that far outclasses the previous one and which, perhaps, brings the British saga back to its former glory.
Downton Abbey A New Era Review: The Story
In Downton Abbey A New Era our beloved Crawley group splits up. The news that Lady Violet has inherited a villa on the Mediterranean coast of France wreaks havoc on the large house, and Lord Grantham decides to leave for the exotic location to personally check the bureaucratic and logistical matters of this legacy. With him go Lady Cora, of course, and Lady Edith with her husband in tow. They are joined by Tom Branson and his new wife, Lucy Smith, whom we met in the 2019 film. With them Carson Bates and Baxter to fulfil the duties of helpers valets and personal maids. It remains instead to Downton Lady Mary who is grappling with big news. A film crew has chosen the house as a live location to shoot the scenes of a film, and so the heir of Lady Violet does the honors, managing,
Julian Fellowes, the all-seeing, all-knowing supreme narrator, has tried to shake up the series by changing location and spirit by making part of the proven crew of characters that crowd Downton’s rooms since the beginning of this family saga, which began on April 14 of 1912. This move created a fun movement for the protagonists but also gave them something that, despite everything, we had never known, namely the dimension of the cliché. Lord and Lady Grantham are obviously out of place on the coast, while young people delight in summer sports and sunbathing as the protagonists of a postcard would do.
There is an air of big news in the Yorkshire countryside. Tom’s second marriage is just the opening event of a story that is preparing to overturn every expectation: the lack of funds to renovate the estate pushes the Grantham family to accept against their will the proposal of a renowned film producer, or to exploit the lush setting of Downton Abbey to shoot a film. But the real bomb comes from the elderly Violet (Maggie Smith): Lady Grantham has in fact inherited a luxurious villa located on the coast of France. To give her this gift would apparently be an old flame of her from her youth years, who died leaving her current wife more aggressive than ever.
Downton’s family splits up: Robert, Cora, Tom and part of the servants head to France to negotiate the acquisition of the gleaming estate, while Mary remains in Yorkshire to oversee the filming of the film. On both sides, the respective storylines will not fail to reserve surprises and twists: on the one hand, Robert’s journey reveals juicy details about the past of the enigmatic Lady Violet, on the other. The arrival of a film production upsets the delicate balance of Downton, but also triggers interesting dynamics between the inhabitants of the palace and the stars involved in the making of the feature film.
Downton Abbey A New Era Review And Analysis
The first rule that moves the threads of the Downton Abbey script is change. Old and new protagonists face the novelties of a new era, and it is cinema itself that becomes a metaphor for the transformations that lead them towards the future. The transition from silent to sound, from photo-novel stars to real actors, from the reconstructed set to the realistic one, Downton Abbey 2 tells the technological evolution with a metatextual touch , without however forgetting the splendid process of development of one’s characters and one’s own narrative path. In full Downton Abbey style there is no shortage of twists and scandals, but this time the hottest or most dramatic ideas in history are balanced with a pleasant comedy, brilliant dialogue, writing with a substantially perfect rhythm. If already in the previous iterations, often and willingly, humor permeated the story without ever taking over, this time the unraveling of the plot rests mainly on lightness.
The genuine drive to find something new to tell that animated the first film, released three years after the series ended, is missing here and although in many corners you can find the refined spirit of Fellowes and his inventiveness in always finding new ideas and quibbles to advance the stories of so many characters, Downton Abbey A New Era has lost some of the polish it once possessed. The moments of fan service are many, and all very polite, but too many are the situations crudely cut out of the fabric of the story, with foreseen and unexpected turns that do not recall in the one from a distance the refined intertwining and the emotional swing that these characters we were used to dealing with each episode.
After all , the structure of Downton Abbey A New Era, as it was for the first film, is that of a Christmas Special , always a precious opportunity for Fellowes and his associates, to carry on and on some occasion brilliantly conclude the narrative arcs of one character or the other. What’s extraordinary about Downton Abbey 2 is that this narrative turn does not change the tone of the franchise at all, but on the contrary it strengthens and refreshes its formula. A new era is, in short, a chapter of great changes for the series, a film that does not forget the historical DNA of production: in Downton Abbey 2 we laugh and cry, have fun and get excited, especially on an epilogue that cannot fail to devastate the hearts of all historical fans.
Every great story comes to fruition and indeed, Downton Abbey fans can say they are more than satisfied to have benefited so long and with such richness of all the characters they have come to love. But if in 2019 the work of the creator of the series had been directed to a story that was self-sufficient, in this second cinematic adventure of the Crawleys everything relies on a background that does not allow the viewer to fully enjoy the “film” form, but which requires prior preparation. The Value of Downton Abbey A New Era as a Film it therefore decays, in favor of an operation dedicated exclusively to fans, which is not wrong in an absolute sense, but which slightly undermines the foundations of excellence on which this great cathedral of television seriality had always rested.
Downton Abbey A New Era Review: The Last Words
Downton Abbey A New Era is Downton Abbey to the ninety degree, but at the same time it is a film that manages to ferry its audience towards great changes. The novelties are above all in the tones of the film, lighter and more fun than its previous iterations, and therefore fresher, more dynamic, able to put its protagonists in a completely new light. This does not mean that the narrative trappings of the saga are less, far from it: between twists, revelations and painful farewells, the new Downton Abbey film brings the franchise back to its peak. A fundamental chapter, much more than its predecessor that fans of the first hour will not want and must not miss.
