Like a significant proportion of the planet, we were on a binge of watching the series a few years ago and my wife was absolutely smitten by it. That’s why watching this highly anticipated feature film was always going to be inevitable even if objectively speaking we all know that it’s not going to be much good. The best thing to be said about it is that it properly reunites the cast, with the exception of Matthew Goode who has a curiously insignificant role, and the show is led by series creator Julian Fellowes.
The residents of Downton Abbey are thrown into a frenzy of activity when it is announced that the King and Queen of England will arrive to stay for a night during their tour of the county. Accompanying them is the Queen’s lady-in-waiting who happens to be the cousin of the Earl of Grantham which generates some drama as she is childless yet refuses to allow the Granthams to inherit her property. The other residents each have roles to play in the affair such as when Tom Branson is visited by a military officer and he assumes that this is to assure the security of the royals. But the real excitement takes place downstairs as the servants are delighted to serve the King and Queen. Even Mr. Carson and Molesley return to assume their previous duties. However their hopes are dashed when they learn that the royal entourage includes all the needed servants including a personal chef and supply of food. Anna and John Bates therefore hatch a plan to ensure that the servants of the household don’t miss out on their chance to shine.
As a piece of craftsmanship, this film is really quite remarkable in how Fellowes is able to come up with a suitably grand main plot and still have enough room for each character to have little stories of their own. Naturally corners are cut and conflicts are swept away with startling alacrity as Fellowes does his best to keep all of the plates spinning. We can see this when Anna confronts a thief within the royal entourage who promptly fold and confesses without much of a fight at all. Yet for the most part, it works out okay and it can’t be denied that all of the pomp and ceremony looks quite beautiful. No fan is left behind as he contrives to give satisfactory endings to each character, such that even as Barrow is left out of the preparations for the royal visit due to Mr. Carson’s return, he gains a boyfriend to round off his personal story. The sole exception is Henry Talbot who in effect makes only a cameo appearance. I suspect that this is because his character showed up late in the series and most fans aren’t as emotionally invested in him anyway.
At the same time, never has it been more obvious how horribly regressive this show is. The downstairs servants actively compete for the honor of serving their monarchs and take pride in making Downton Abbey look good. When Mary agonizes over whether they should give up this antiquated lifestyle and live like normal people do, Anna persuades her that Downton Abbey is the center of the community and is critical to many people’s lives. Watching this soon after The Wind That Shakes the Barley set at around the same time only exposes the ugliness of such blind deference to the British establishment and the aristocracy. Historical costume dramas like this are always a kind of escapist fantasy but the closer you come to modern times the harder it is to look away from the inherent injustice that lies at the heart of the upper class societies that are invariably the subject of these shows. Fellowes is obviously well aware of this problem and that is why he absolutely insists that the saga of the Crawley will never advance into the Second World War.
This film ends with a comment that Crawleys will still be at Downton Abbey even a hundred years later. But as we know now, the real castle where the show was filmed survives only on tourism so it’s hardly the same thing. As for the film itself, it’s pretty much the perfect capstone for the series and the fans could not have hoped for anything better. But it is of no interest whatsoever to anyone who hasn’t watched the series and is generally not very good. As something of a fan myself, it makes for a properly satisfying closure but I am rather glad that it’s over and done with.