Female Film Critics 24/375
Witty writer Julian Fellowes has cleverly created and cast such fully realized, socially stratified characters that it’s completely credible that Noel Coward should come to visit Downton, accompanied by actor Guy Dexter and his ‘companion’ – former footman/valet – Thomas Barrow, and – having heard Mary’s divorce story – be inspired to write the comedy Private Lives.
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Fans of the television series and two previous films will still experience the beautiful scenery and feel the warm familiar embrace of the posh lot. As the Dowager Countess looks down on the antics from her portrait in the foyer and Lord Grantham places a kiss on the home’s stone facade, the audience may just shed a tear or three as our old friend’s destinies are wrapped up nicely in a two hour love letter. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing dull. Just a fond faire thee well.
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They have all been through a lot, and the new era offers just as many challenges. The prospect of another war and a depression. A leaky roof. Hetero- v. homosexuality. A French villa no one knew about from a paramour no one knew about. Lord Grantham’s lineage. Who inherits what? Plus a moving picture filmed on the premises — just as Downton is, which presents the running theme of silent films vs. “talkies.”
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If you’re an avid fan of the PBS series and followed the franchise onto the big screen, you should relish this reunion with the inhabitants of the Crawley’s stately country house who have become so familiar. But if you’re not acquainted with their backstories, this sequel may be a bit bewildering. Written once again by series creator Julian Fellowes and directed by Simon Curtis, the period drama, set circa 1929, veers between Yorkshire and the South of France and is fraught with emotional complications.
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In Downton Abbey: The New Era. the Crawleys of Grantham have invited us back into their stately manor to catch us up on what the Earl, his family, and all of the spunky servants have been up to of late. This is the sequel to the 2019 movie spinoff of the globally popular six-season TV series that lasted from 2010 to 2015. Fans of the Downton Abbey franchise will find The New Era scathingly delicious and sentimentally sweet. But, if you’ve never visited the Granthams before, you’ll probably have more fun watching your favorite DVD.
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If you’re an avid fan of PBS’ dramatic series Downton Abbey, you’ll relish this big-screen version. Working with screenwriter James Fellowes, director Michael Engler manages to give all the characters their own mini-crisis and catharsis, involving proper manners and utmost civility, drawing on the trials and tribulations of England’s inherent class system, which exists despite anti-monarchist grumbles.
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In 1922 fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks travels from Wichita, Kansas, to New York with chaperone Norma Carlisle. Opening titles announce that within a few years Brooks “will become one of the most famous film stars in the world.” Director Michael Engel’s The Chaperone announces its focus on Norma as opposed to Louise, but the contrasts between these two drive the film.
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