The smash TV series hits the big screen with all the upstairs and downstairs characters back as the King and Queen come to stay for a night on the royal tour of Yorkshire.
It’s a straightforward, pleasant enough narrative but all a little too vanilla and over reaching. In the TV series, each ‘story’ would have been one episode: in the film, most are dispatched in 10-15 minutes. The threat to the King: a light-fingered visiting staff member: Barrow’s (Robert-James Collier) close call with the police. Underlying it all is the responsibility of tradition, preserving the established way of life in light of political and social changes.
The film is a true ensemble but delivers a surprise in that characters such as Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern as Lord and Lady Crawley are to be found in the background. Downton Abbey is about the past represented by Maggie Smith letting go, with the future in the hands of Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery).
Rating: 53%
Director: Michael Engler (The Chaperone, TV’s Downton Abbey)
Writer: Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, TV’s Downton Abbey)
Main cast: Michelle Dockery (The Sense of an Ending, Anna Karenina), Maggie Smith (The Lady in the Van, California Suite), Hugh Bonneville (Iris, Viceroy’s House)
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