Downton Abbey goes to the Movies
Sep. 15th, 2019 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessDownton Abbey 2019
This was, as I sort of expected, like a Christmas special, only with a bigger budget, which meant a more expansive opening, slightly more background servants and shots of silver stuff etc. It was entertaining (doubly so whenever Maggie Smith’s Violet appeared on screen, obviously), but I wasn’t as excited by it as I was with, say, the Veronica Mars movie, or Serenity. But then, Downton was never cancelled. It ended with everyone knowing it was ending, so the very last episode tied much up with a golden bow. At the same time, it’s enough of a soap for them to eke out returning to see how the extended Crawleys and staff are doing and give them little ‘adventures’ (consternation over the boiler and Edith’s gown etc!) in this and other films.
The film starts some two years after we last saw them, and all of Downton is thrown into a tizzy because there’s going to be a royal visit. Lady Mary doesn’t think Barrow is up to it and calls Carson back in – of course she does – but even he cannot withstand the snooty royal household (staff) who say they’ll do everything, thanks very much, even refusing the new local grocer’s supplies. Henry is in the States (not sure if this was Matthew Goode’s schedule or deliberate) but Edith and (slightly stuffy) Bertie arrive. He’s worried about Tom’s republican tendencies, I was like ‘Dude, I remember when he was just a socialist.’ Violet is exercised about a lady in waiting who is related to them who doesn’t intend to leave her house to Grantham. Also, Daisy is kind of a republican now, but the film is obviously pro monarchy, if giving Mary wobbles over how the lower upper class’s way of life can continue.
As I expected, we get to hear in the Violet-and-Mary version of a heart-to-heart that the Dowager has a medical condition that means should there be a sequel, it won’t involve her. Maggie Smith delivers Violet’s one-liners with as much relish as ever, and Isobel nobly rises to respond. Violet & Isobel BFF <3 There’s a Harry Potter-related buzz to seeing Minerva do battle with Dolores Umbridge again, although Lady Bagshawe was much nicer. Also, she had the best exit line for their clashes – she had to go and serve the queen.
What I wasn’t expecting, but it was great, was that Tom Branson was kind of the male lead of all this. He got to be heroic, wise and romantic! Thomas only has the one plotline, and most of the other guys play supporting roles or, like Bonneville’s amiable Grantham, punctuate events. Branson has three plots – possibly they decided to send Henry to the US because people who didn’t watch every episode didn’t know him, but Branson has been around since season 1. Of course, Branson-Mary interaction always reminds me that I could ship them, because they work well together – e.g. how he asks her to get the gun when he’s in a tussle with an assassin, expecting her to do it, and she does, because it’s well within her capabilities.
Yes, Branson ends up foiling a plot to assassinate the king, because the Crawleys have got to him that much! (It’s Downton. I’ve been reading some vids and watching some vids in the build-up and also remembering it’s many, many daft plotlines). Also, because he’s decent.
But forget Edith’s magazine’s editor lady, Branson has confidential talks with TWO new lady characters. Well, neither is quite a lady. One is Princess Mary, but he doesn’t know it, trapped in a loveless marriage with a controlling creep. (Was this historically accurate?) Tom helps her grow a spine within a moral framework, which saves the monarchy’s blushes way. Two is Lucy Smith, Lady Bagshawe’s maid, but the way she talked about her I was all ‘well, either she’s your young lover or natural daughter, and I think it’s the second given the meetcute with Branson.’ I’ll get to her plot later, but she’s played by Tuppence Middleton, which did my Jupiter Ascending heart good, because there was no Jeremy Swift playing Spratt. She also looks more like Sybil than past love interests they’ve given Branson-as-widower, which I like, because it makes sense if the guy’s got a type. She liked that he, the outsider, seemed to understand her position and treated her kindly. He just really liked her. I didn’t love the kiss on so few hours’ acquaintance. I’d have cut it and kept the kiss of the hand, which, being in public was waaaay more romantic, and then you had the swoony them dancing outdoors while the ball of poshos went on indoors. Which is quite enough.
ANNA WAS THE BOSS OF DOWNSTAIRS. Sorry, Elsie Hughes-Carson, but it’s true. She came up with the scheme to usurp the encroaching royal staff, realised who the thief was and blackmailed them into saving Edith’s gown. I care less about Anna & Mary BFF, but her speech about the importance of Downton would have won me over (if I had Mary’s politics) without the need for Granny’s.
I liked that they continued with so much that had been established, Molesley was mostly the clown and responsible for THE MOMENT OF CRINGE, but he did have that nice moment with Baxter (why aren’t they engaged? Everyone else is.) I am still overjoyed that Edith now outranks Mary, always and forever, but I’m glad they seemed to be getting on. Henry’s bounding up to see Mary was nice. Isobel’s happy marriage was nice. Ditto Robert and Cora – a reminder that their daughters really couldn’t have settled for less than love matches. Jim Carver’s voice as Carson is probably something I haven’t commented on. And I loved the extra movie oomph of seeing more of the grounds and village than we normally would.
Other things: while Robert’s line about Thomas surprising him with principles (some pride isn’t principles) made me laugh louder than anyone else in the cinema, Thomas did come off as amazingly naïve in his plotline. Wasn’t his gaydar pinging with the only nice royal footman? Everyone else’s was. And he was acting like he was the same age as he was fifteen years ago, ‘I’ve been a silly boy’ – so he’d never come across York’s secret gay club in all the fifteen years he’d been living in the area? Still, I’d have been sniping at Carson just as much as he did.
I’ll tell you who else was sniping at Carson, was his loving (!) wife. I agree he’s a pompous windbag who deserves a prick or two to let the air out, but she was sniping at him for most of the film.
I was a bit vexed with Daisy, who was all unenthusiastic about her wedding to Andy, even though he THOUGHT SHE COULD BE AN MP (delusional lover). What was her problem? That he was too keen? (I think he was sexually frustrated, myself.) She was flirting with the plumber, actually, and she and Andy should have snogged after Daisy’s strange interpretation of his confession, but whatever, the wedding is on (possibly something for the sequel).
Upstairs, Edith was a bit whiny, so let’s assume she’s definitely pregnant and it’s hormones. We were reminded by the arrival of the King that Bertie is the VIP of the family, which explains his starchiness. The kids were seen, but not much heard, which feels about right.
The plotline with the inheritance and secret love child is repetitive, but it wouldn’t be Downton if they didn’t recycle plots. I was left scrambling to work out if anyone who knew about Lucy knew about Marigold. I don’t think they did, except possibly Branson.
The royal family seemed nice – I loved Cora asking the Queen being the way to enable Bertie to be around for the birth. Stephen Campbell Moore always seems to play spies, and possibly Branson needs to stop accepting people on face value. That exchange about Violet’s spirit watching them through all the pictures made me think of Harry Potter again.
There were a couple of nods or ‘remember whens’, but it really was like an expanded Christmas special, only on a bigger screen, and, perhaps more significantly, with whole audience to laugh at Violet with. I can’t say that any moment really got to me, as some on the show itself have.
I really am left wanting to rewatch Gosford Park, though.
Trailerwatch: Now I have more of a feel for what The Aeronauts will be like and I think I'll go see it. Cats...is better if you close your eyes and listen to Jennifer Hudson sing her heart out. Like many things, it would have been better animated. Not going to see it.
(Lightly edited 30/4/2022.)
This was, as I sort of expected, like a Christmas special, only with a bigger budget, which meant a more expansive opening, slightly more background servants and shots of silver stuff etc. It was entertaining (doubly so whenever Maggie Smith’s Violet appeared on screen, obviously), but I wasn’t as excited by it as I was with, say, the Veronica Mars movie, or Serenity. But then, Downton was never cancelled. It ended with everyone knowing it was ending, so the very last episode tied much up with a golden bow. At the same time, it’s enough of a soap for them to eke out returning to see how the extended Crawleys and staff are doing and give them little ‘adventures’ (consternation over the boiler and Edith’s gown etc!) in this and other films.
The film starts some two years after we last saw them, and all of Downton is thrown into a tizzy because there’s going to be a royal visit. Lady Mary doesn’t think Barrow is up to it and calls Carson back in – of course she does – but even he cannot withstand the snooty royal household (staff) who say they’ll do everything, thanks very much, even refusing the new local grocer’s supplies. Henry is in the States (not sure if this was Matthew Goode’s schedule or deliberate) but Edith and (slightly stuffy) Bertie arrive. He’s worried about Tom’s republican tendencies, I was like ‘Dude, I remember when he was just a socialist.’ Violet is exercised about a lady in waiting who is related to them who doesn’t intend to leave her house to Grantham. Also, Daisy is kind of a republican now, but the film is obviously pro monarchy, if giving Mary wobbles over how the lower upper class’s way of life can continue.
As I expected, we get to hear in the Violet-and-Mary version of a heart-to-heart that the Dowager has a medical condition that means should there be a sequel, it won’t involve her. Maggie Smith delivers Violet’s one-liners with as much relish as ever, and Isobel nobly rises to respond. Violet & Isobel BFF <3 There’s a Harry Potter-related buzz to seeing Minerva do battle with Dolores Umbridge again, although Lady Bagshawe was much nicer. Also, she had the best exit line for their clashes – she had to go and serve the queen.
What I wasn’t expecting, but it was great, was that Tom Branson was kind of the male lead of all this. He got to be heroic, wise and romantic! Thomas only has the one plotline, and most of the other guys play supporting roles or, like Bonneville’s amiable Grantham, punctuate events. Branson has three plots – possibly they decided to send Henry to the US because people who didn’t watch every episode didn’t know him, but Branson has been around since season 1. Of course, Branson-Mary interaction always reminds me that I could ship them, because they work well together – e.g. how he asks her to get the gun when he’s in a tussle with an assassin, expecting her to do it, and she does, because it’s well within her capabilities.
Yes, Branson ends up foiling a plot to assassinate the king, because the Crawleys have got to him that much! (It’s Downton. I’ve been reading some vids and watching some vids in the build-up and also remembering it’s many, many daft plotlines). Also, because he’s decent.
But forget Edith’s magazine’s editor lady, Branson has confidential talks with TWO new lady characters. Well, neither is quite a lady. One is Princess Mary, but he doesn’t know it, trapped in a loveless marriage with a controlling creep. (Was this historically accurate?) Tom helps her grow a spine within a moral framework, which saves the monarchy’s blushes way. Two is Lucy Smith, Lady Bagshawe’s maid, but the way she talked about her I was all ‘well, either she’s your young lover or natural daughter, and I think it’s the second given the meetcute with Branson.’ I’ll get to her plot later, but she’s played by Tuppence Middleton, which did my Jupiter Ascending heart good, because there was no Jeremy Swift playing Spratt. She also looks more like Sybil than past love interests they’ve given Branson-as-widower, which I like, because it makes sense if the guy’s got a type. She liked that he, the outsider, seemed to understand her position and treated her kindly. He just really liked her. I didn’t love the kiss on so few hours’ acquaintance. I’d have cut it and kept the kiss of the hand, which, being in public was waaaay more romantic, and then you had the swoony them dancing outdoors while the ball of poshos went on indoors. Which is quite enough.
ANNA WAS THE BOSS OF DOWNSTAIRS. Sorry, Elsie Hughes-Carson, but it’s true. She came up with the scheme to usurp the encroaching royal staff, realised who the thief was and blackmailed them into saving Edith’s gown. I care less about Anna & Mary BFF, but her speech about the importance of Downton would have won me over (if I had Mary’s politics) without the need for Granny’s.
I liked that they continued with so much that had been established, Molesley was mostly the clown and responsible for THE MOMENT OF CRINGE, but he did have that nice moment with Baxter (why aren’t they engaged? Everyone else is.) I am still overjoyed that Edith now outranks Mary, always and forever, but I’m glad they seemed to be getting on. Henry’s bounding up to see Mary was nice. Isobel’s happy marriage was nice. Ditto Robert and Cora – a reminder that their daughters really couldn’t have settled for less than love matches. Jim Carver’s voice as Carson is probably something I haven’t commented on. And I loved the extra movie oomph of seeing more of the grounds and village than we normally would.
Other things: while Robert’s line about Thomas surprising him with principles (some pride isn’t principles) made me laugh louder than anyone else in the cinema, Thomas did come off as amazingly naïve in his plotline. Wasn’t his gaydar pinging with the only nice royal footman? Everyone else’s was. And he was acting like he was the same age as he was fifteen years ago, ‘I’ve been a silly boy’ – so he’d never come across York’s secret gay club in all the fifteen years he’d been living in the area? Still, I’d have been sniping at Carson just as much as he did.
I’ll tell you who else was sniping at Carson, was his loving (!) wife. I agree he’s a pompous windbag who deserves a prick or two to let the air out, but she was sniping at him for most of the film.
I was a bit vexed with Daisy, who was all unenthusiastic about her wedding to Andy, even though he THOUGHT SHE COULD BE AN MP (delusional lover). What was her problem? That he was too keen? (I think he was sexually frustrated, myself.) She was flirting with the plumber, actually, and she and Andy should have snogged after Daisy’s strange interpretation of his confession, but whatever, the wedding is on (possibly something for the sequel).
Upstairs, Edith was a bit whiny, so let’s assume she’s definitely pregnant and it’s hormones. We were reminded by the arrival of the King that Bertie is the VIP of the family, which explains his starchiness. The kids were seen, but not much heard, which feels about right.
The plotline with the inheritance and secret love child is repetitive, but it wouldn’t be Downton if they didn’t recycle plots. I was left scrambling to work out if anyone who knew about Lucy knew about Marigold. I don’t think they did, except possibly Branson.
The royal family seemed nice – I loved Cora asking the Queen being the way to enable Bertie to be around for the birth. Stephen Campbell Moore always seems to play spies, and possibly Branson needs to stop accepting people on face value. That exchange about Violet’s spirit watching them through all the pictures made me think of Harry Potter again.
There were a couple of nods or ‘remember whens’, but it really was like an expanded Christmas special, only on a bigger screen, and, perhaps more significantly, with whole audience to laugh at Violet with. I can’t say that any moment really got to me, as some on the show itself have.
I really am left wanting to rewatch Gosford Park, though.
Trailerwatch: Now I have more of a feel for what The Aeronauts will be like and I think I'll go see it. Cats...is better if you close your eyes and listen to Jennifer Hudson sing her heart out. Like many things, it would have been better animated. Not going to see it.
(Lightly edited 30/4/2022.)
no subject
Date: 2019-09-15 07:43 pm (UTC)However, what I was really going to say was I need to rewatch Gosford Park too.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-17 07:33 am (UTC)But yes, this is more a film for people who have followed the series, although I think you could pick up quite a lot about "new" servants and husbands quickly.