Downton Abbey: A New Era
Dec. 30th, 2024 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessIt feels apt that I watched this (not live, but on Boxing Day night) at home on TV. (Okay, technically on my laptop.) For all that it was released as a feature film in the cinemas, it really is a glorified Christmas special, with the budget for some of them to go to the south of France, or somewhere that could pretend to be the same.
We started off with Tom and Lucy’s wedding, to which nearly everyone came, except Henry, Tom’s business partner. It looked as though it were in a CofE church, but it’s always best not to be too pernickety about Tom’s religious persuasion (and Lucy might have had a say, or, more likely, Maud) or his politics as they have changed according to plot needs over the years. (Fairly sure Tom’s brother wasn’t invited either.) We learned that Daisy and Andy had already got married (good) and then what seemed like two low-stakes plots kicked off.
Violet had inherited a French villa under mysterious circumstances (from a now-dead Marquis who had thought she was marvellous when they were younger.) She’d known about it, but not taken it seriously before. In a nice touch, she was going to leave it to Sybbie, having realised that of all her great-grandchildren, she was likely to be the least provided for. But the Marquis’s wife was not happy about this, so most of the upstairs people were going to investigate this (Robert and Cora, and Tom and Lucy, which meant Maud was coming to.) Oh, and Edith and Bertie would like to come for a jolly. Also, they’d be taking Carson as well as Bates and Baxter, at Mrs Hughes’s request, mainly because Downton Abbey was to be used as a film set (which would pay for a new roof. I think this was one of the moments where the Crawleys were meant to be relatable, although that just proves that the show skews towards an older audience, because what’s the average age of people getting ‘on the housing ladder’ in the UK, again?)
So, we had Carson abroad and winks and nudges about how the actors playing Maud and Carson (Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter) are married IRL until the dead Marquis’s son floated the theory that his papa had left the villa to Violet because Robert was his son. The dates seemed plausible…
At home, Andy and Daisy were finding living with Mr Mason cramping, Mrs Hughes was anachronistically sympathetic that Thomas’s love interest from the last film was marrying a beard, and most of the staff were excited about seeing a film being made and serving film stars. Guy Dexter (Dominic West), Lena Lamont – er, Myrna Dalgleish (Laura Haddock) and the director Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy) would be upstairs guests. Myrna turned out to speak like Eliza Doolittle turned up to 11, while being a total diva. Guy was nicer (and it gradually emerged, gay. Though it was never mentioned and hair dye was used, the fact that West is older than the still boyish James-Collier and how circumspect Guy and Just Barrow’s interaction was, perhaps in reaction to the previous film, meant that Guy/Thomas came off more sordid than romantic. Elsie wasn’t the only anachronistically supportive character, although I chortled at Lady Mary quite rightly cutting Thomas off for TMI when he said he was resigning his post as butler.)
They didn’t do much with Guy’s class, even though it was stated he was working class before becoming a movie star, while his accent was posh (if they were thinking Cary Grant, then they should have made more of it.) And Barber’s class was also ambiguous. Both men seemed more comfortable among the upper classes and behaved more nicely to the servants. The main thing about Barber was that he was very taken by Mary, who was kind of abandoned by her husband for car rallies (or Mathew Goode was unavailable after they only gave him a cameo last time.)
As I’ve hinted, they very much pinched from the plot of Singin’ in the Rain, with the Downton film’s USP of filming on location being undercut by the success of talkies. When it was suggested that they turned ‘The Gambler’ into a talkie, the problem of Myrna’s terrible voice came up, and Mary had to step up as Kathy Selden (she really wanted the roof fixed!) There were the added echoes of Gosford Park to this whole plotline, with meta comments about how awkward filming at a stately home was. It also allowed them to make use of Kevin Doyle’s Molesley, who LOVED movies. He didn’t quite have a scene to equal the first film here, but he turned out to be a natural at screenwriting…
So he felt able to propose to Phyllis Baxter, who’d been rather touching about how she felt about him in France. FINALLY. Everyone overhead them because a microphone was in an improbable location. I LOVED Phyllis telling him she’d rather like him to kneel as he proposed, actually.
This plotline enabled the actor service of the Downton servants stepping in for the unpaid extras i.e. getting dressed up in old-fashioned glad rags to sit at the dining table for a film scene. We’d already had starstruck Daisy insisting she went upstairs to serve Myrna, after being stuck in the kitchen for so long.
Mary really has grown up now, she got on with Edith in 80% of their interactions, and though Barber’s admiration to her was clear and she went off on a tangent about how he reminded her of Matthew and what if (whether he’d have got on her nerves if he’d not died) – she decided to be faithful.
As it turned out, this echoed Violet’s decision all those years ago, but they stretched out the non-drama about what had happened with a lot of fuss over a miniature. (Poor Madame le Marquise, it sounded as though her husband flaunted his first love at her, although because she never shared any scenes with Violet, her hostility to the Grantham/Crawley party turning up at the villa was never as powerful as it could have been, especially because her son was so accommodating.) As set up in the previous movie, this was Violet’s last hurrah (and by the time I was getting to see it, Maggie Smith had passed away.) She had a few zingers in her yet, but was soon taking to her bed instead of facing the film-making.
All this lead to some anguish for Robert, who was feeling like a fraud – if he wasn’t his father’s son, he wasn’t the Earl of Grantham, was he? Edith rather unfeelingly pointed out that even if he wasn’t, George would still be the rightful heir. Edith was also, allegedly, restarting her journalistic career (although this mainly seemed to involve taking photographs, and I don’t get how she’s going to travel from Hexham to London for part of the week.) Bertie was being adorably supportive. He remains in the ‘can’t believe my luck’ stage of marriage, which bounced nicely off Tom and Lucy’s honeymooning energy.
But what was this? Hardly subtle signs that Cora was seriously unwell? Edith advised her to be honest with Robert. His first reaction probably made Cora think ‘Why did I listen to Edith again?’ But in fairness, he knew he would soon be losing his mother, he was starting to believe he’d lost his father in a sense, and now worried about losing his wife. It was rather a lot for a constipated English gentleman! Poor Robert.
It turned out Cora just had pernicious anaemia (hang on, haven’t they already used that?) and was not dying. Good! Nobody should cramp Lady Violet’s death scene (also nice to see the Scottish doctor back on screen.) It was eventually confirmed that Robert really was a Crawley, although Violet had been tempted by the Marquis (and then they also referenced her past with the Russian prince, reminding us that this was another recycled plotline.)
Violet had got to say her goodbyes to Tom, and, most touchingly, Isobel – Violet telling her BFF that she reminded her of her mother was what got to me. The deathbed goodbyes were a bit self-indulgent. I chortled about her telling Robert that there was no need for the fact that she was smarter than him to come between them, and it was nicely tempered by her admitting that he was kinder than her. Violet even admitted she’d been wrong once, about Cora! They handled the moment of Violet’s passing well (I wasn’t that fussed about Denker for the rest of the film, but I suppose she can replace Baxter in future.)
Due weight was given to Violet’s funeral, with Mary as her true heir, having qualms (and still no husband about to support her.) Mary’s own personal walking, talking teddy bear Carson told her she’d be fine. (He also seemed to think he could train Andy up to be a butler, so Mr Mason’s dream of Andy and Daisy the farmers seems kaput.)
Anna didn’t get much to do, it was more about Daisy, who was the one to talk some sense into Myrna. As a result Cora suggested she saved her career by pretending to be American (apparently that’s easier for Cockneys than putting on a posh voice.) I think Daisy also managed to arrange things so that Mr Mason moved to live at Mrs Patmore’s, but not like that. I don’t know, I think that was the one bit that I didn’t follow.
As Lucy, Tuppence Middleton had very little to do except look a lot like Sybil, be an impeccable stepmother to Sybbie and get knocked up. But then Tom also had less to do in this film than the last. (I still felt a wave of Mary/Tom could totally have worked!) I liked the glimpses we had of the youngest generation (Caroline seemed invisible, though) interacting with the servants and occasionally their relatives.
The whole thing was very weirdly paced, and apart from the stuff for Robert and Cora, the loss of Violet and the latest engagement, oddly lowkey, so I feel justified in not bothering to buy the DVD or anything. Sure, there were lots of callbacks, but they have written themselves up a lot of narrative cul-de-sacs (will Thomas, Baxter and Molesley return in Downton Abbey 3? Will Henry??? Because Mary really is the lead, and seeing Edith and Tom and their significant others makes her seem even more abandoned.) Are they going to tackle the Great Depression? (If they do, will it be in a typically ludicrous leftfield Downton way? Or will they do some kind of flashforward to prove that, really, no, this is the end.)
We started off with Tom and Lucy’s wedding, to which nearly everyone came, except Henry, Tom’s business partner. It looked as though it were in a CofE church, but it’s always best not to be too pernickety about Tom’s religious persuasion (and Lucy might have had a say, or, more likely, Maud) or his politics as they have changed according to plot needs over the years. (Fairly sure Tom’s brother wasn’t invited either.) We learned that Daisy and Andy had already got married (good) and then what seemed like two low-stakes plots kicked off.
Violet had inherited a French villa under mysterious circumstances (from a now-dead Marquis who had thought she was marvellous when they were younger.) She’d known about it, but not taken it seriously before. In a nice touch, she was going to leave it to Sybbie, having realised that of all her great-grandchildren, she was likely to be the least provided for. But the Marquis’s wife was not happy about this, so most of the upstairs people were going to investigate this (Robert and Cora, and Tom and Lucy, which meant Maud was coming to.) Oh, and Edith and Bertie would like to come for a jolly. Also, they’d be taking Carson as well as Bates and Baxter, at Mrs Hughes’s request, mainly because Downton Abbey was to be used as a film set (which would pay for a new roof. I think this was one of the moments where the Crawleys were meant to be relatable, although that just proves that the show skews towards an older audience, because what’s the average age of people getting ‘on the housing ladder’ in the UK, again?)
So, we had Carson abroad and winks and nudges about how the actors playing Maud and Carson (Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter) are married IRL until the dead Marquis’s son floated the theory that his papa had left the villa to Violet because Robert was his son. The dates seemed plausible…
At home, Andy and Daisy were finding living with Mr Mason cramping, Mrs Hughes was anachronistically sympathetic that Thomas’s love interest from the last film was marrying a beard, and most of the staff were excited about seeing a film being made and serving film stars. Guy Dexter (Dominic West), Lena Lamont – er, Myrna Dalgleish (Laura Haddock) and the director Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy) would be upstairs guests. Myrna turned out to speak like Eliza Doolittle turned up to 11, while being a total diva. Guy was nicer (and it gradually emerged, gay. Though it was never mentioned and hair dye was used, the fact that West is older than the still boyish James-Collier and how circumspect Guy and Just Barrow’s interaction was, perhaps in reaction to the previous film, meant that Guy/Thomas came off more sordid than romantic. Elsie wasn’t the only anachronistically supportive character, although I chortled at Lady Mary quite rightly cutting Thomas off for TMI when he said he was resigning his post as butler.)
They didn’t do much with Guy’s class, even though it was stated he was working class before becoming a movie star, while his accent was posh (if they were thinking Cary Grant, then they should have made more of it.) And Barber’s class was also ambiguous. Both men seemed more comfortable among the upper classes and behaved more nicely to the servants. The main thing about Barber was that he was very taken by Mary, who was kind of abandoned by her husband for car rallies (or Mathew Goode was unavailable after they only gave him a cameo last time.)
As I’ve hinted, they very much pinched from the plot of Singin’ in the Rain, with the Downton film’s USP of filming on location being undercut by the success of talkies. When it was suggested that they turned ‘The Gambler’ into a talkie, the problem of Myrna’s terrible voice came up, and Mary had to step up as Kathy Selden (she really wanted the roof fixed!) There were the added echoes of Gosford Park to this whole plotline, with meta comments about how awkward filming at a stately home was. It also allowed them to make use of Kevin Doyle’s Molesley, who LOVED movies. He didn’t quite have a scene to equal the first film here, but he turned out to be a natural at screenwriting…
So he felt able to propose to Phyllis Baxter, who’d been rather touching about how she felt about him in France. FINALLY. Everyone overhead them because a microphone was in an improbable location. I LOVED Phyllis telling him she’d rather like him to kneel as he proposed, actually.
This plotline enabled the actor service of the Downton servants stepping in for the unpaid extras i.e. getting dressed up in old-fashioned glad rags to sit at the dining table for a film scene. We’d already had starstruck Daisy insisting she went upstairs to serve Myrna, after being stuck in the kitchen for so long.
Mary really has grown up now, she got on with Edith in 80% of their interactions, and though Barber’s admiration to her was clear and she went off on a tangent about how he reminded her of Matthew and what if (whether he’d have got on her nerves if he’d not died) – she decided to be faithful.
As it turned out, this echoed Violet’s decision all those years ago, but they stretched out the non-drama about what had happened with a lot of fuss over a miniature. (Poor Madame le Marquise, it sounded as though her husband flaunted his first love at her, although because she never shared any scenes with Violet, her hostility to the Grantham/Crawley party turning up at the villa was never as powerful as it could have been, especially because her son was so accommodating.) As set up in the previous movie, this was Violet’s last hurrah (and by the time I was getting to see it, Maggie Smith had passed away.) She had a few zingers in her yet, but was soon taking to her bed instead of facing the film-making.
All this lead to some anguish for Robert, who was feeling like a fraud – if he wasn’t his father’s son, he wasn’t the Earl of Grantham, was he? Edith rather unfeelingly pointed out that even if he wasn’t, George would still be the rightful heir. Edith was also, allegedly, restarting her journalistic career (although this mainly seemed to involve taking photographs, and I don’t get how she’s going to travel from Hexham to London for part of the week.) Bertie was being adorably supportive. He remains in the ‘can’t believe my luck’ stage of marriage, which bounced nicely off Tom and Lucy’s honeymooning energy.
But what was this? Hardly subtle signs that Cora was seriously unwell? Edith advised her to be honest with Robert. His first reaction probably made Cora think ‘Why did I listen to Edith again?’ But in fairness, he knew he would soon be losing his mother, he was starting to believe he’d lost his father in a sense, and now worried about losing his wife. It was rather a lot for a constipated English gentleman! Poor Robert.
It turned out Cora just had pernicious anaemia (hang on, haven’t they already used that?) and was not dying. Good! Nobody should cramp Lady Violet’s death scene (also nice to see the Scottish doctor back on screen.) It was eventually confirmed that Robert really was a Crawley, although Violet had been tempted by the Marquis (and then they also referenced her past with the Russian prince, reminding us that this was another recycled plotline.)
Violet had got to say her goodbyes to Tom, and, most touchingly, Isobel – Violet telling her BFF that she reminded her of her mother was what got to me. The deathbed goodbyes were a bit self-indulgent. I chortled about her telling Robert that there was no need for the fact that she was smarter than him to come between them, and it was nicely tempered by her admitting that he was kinder than her. Violet even admitted she’d been wrong once, about Cora! They handled the moment of Violet’s passing well (I wasn’t that fussed about Denker for the rest of the film, but I suppose she can replace Baxter in future.)
Due weight was given to Violet’s funeral, with Mary as her true heir, having qualms (and still no husband about to support her.) Mary’s own personal walking, talking teddy bear Carson told her she’d be fine. (He also seemed to think he could train Andy up to be a butler, so Mr Mason’s dream of Andy and Daisy the farmers seems kaput.)
Anna didn’t get much to do, it was more about Daisy, who was the one to talk some sense into Myrna. As a result Cora suggested she saved her career by pretending to be American (apparently that’s easier for Cockneys than putting on a posh voice.) I think Daisy also managed to arrange things so that Mr Mason moved to live at Mrs Patmore’s, but not like that. I don’t know, I think that was the one bit that I didn’t follow.
As Lucy, Tuppence Middleton had very little to do except look a lot like Sybil, be an impeccable stepmother to Sybbie and get knocked up. But then Tom also had less to do in this film than the last. (I still felt a wave of Mary/Tom could totally have worked!) I liked the glimpses we had of the youngest generation (Caroline seemed invisible, though) interacting with the servants and occasionally their relatives.
The whole thing was very weirdly paced, and apart from the stuff for Robert and Cora, the loss of Violet and the latest engagement, oddly lowkey, so I feel justified in not bothering to buy the DVD or anything. Sure, there were lots of callbacks, but they have written themselves up a lot of narrative cul-de-sacs (will Thomas, Baxter and Molesley return in Downton Abbey 3? Will Henry??? Because Mary really is the lead, and seeing Edith and Tom and their significant others makes her seem even more abandoned.) Are they going to tackle the Great Depression? (If they do, will it be in a typically ludicrous leftfield Downton way? Or will they do some kind of flashforward to prove that, really, no, this is the end.)
