Downtown Abbey: A New Era

British TV and feature films usually come across as stoic, staid, yet polished art as compared to their US counterparts. When I saw and reviewed "Downtown Abbey" back in 2019, although the film was well acted and directed, the writing was just a bit unpolished. However, after seeing "Downtown Abbey: A New Era", although it wasn't a great film, it was certainly a better film than I was expecting.

This story, which reunites the cast from the 2019 film, has the Crawley family going on a grand journey to the South of France to uncover the mystery of the dowager Countess' newly inherited villa. The family, including Robert Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) to represent Violet Grantham (Maggie Smith) and to aid them, there is Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) ends up going to this villa while others including Maud Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton), Cora Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) and Lord Merton (Douglas Reith) stay behind to oversee a film that the family agreed to be made in their home. Amongst many of the film crew that were there, the director, Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy), actor Guy Dexter (Dominic West) and actress Myrna Dalgleish (Laura Haddock) ended up considering their task as difficult as dealing with the family and their staff. All in all, hopefully the film can be finished as well as those in France can wrap up their reason for being there.

Others to round out the cast are Penelope Wilton as Isobel Merton, Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith, Michael Fox as Andy Parker, Robert James-Collier as Thomas Barrow, Zac Parker as George, Fifi Hart as Sybbie and Nathalie Baye as Mme de Montmirail.

This was superbly directed by Simon Curtis ("Man and Boy" (TV movie) '02, "Born in the USA" (TV movie) '07, "My Week with Marilyn" '11, "Woman in Gold" '15, "Goodbye Christopher Robbin" '17, "The Art of Racing in the Rain" '19) plus other TV movies, TV and TV mini series. While the 2019 film was directed by Michael Engler, this filmmaker was able to match all the nuances of these characters of that that Engler already did. This takes a talented director that can match nuances of another filmmaker all the while conveying to the audience a certain freshness of the sequel. It was executed well by writer Julian Fellowes ("Gosford Park" '01, "Two Brothers" '04, "Vanity Fair" '04, "Piccadilly Jim" '04, "Separate Lies" '05, "The Young Victoria" '09, "From Time to Time" (adaptation) '09, "The Tourist" '10, "Romeo and Juliet" '13, "Crooked House" '17, "The Chaperone" '18, "School of Rock" '18, "Downtown Abbey" '19, "Kipps: the New Half a Sixpence Musical" (TV movie, book) '21) plus TV, based on characters created by Julian Fellowes. Obviously by his very resume, this writer is seasoned and talented, and where I truly believe that the 2019 film of the same name was adequate, it simply didn't have the polish of the series. However, with this film, Fellowes has been redeemed. Other than a couple of very small places of inconsistencies, this film was much better than I ever dreamed--I went to see this with great trepidation. Going between the abbey and France could've been convoluted, but Fellowes conveyed the connection with such finesse. If you like this writer's style, his "The Wind in the Willows"is in pre-production at this point. 

Certainly if you are a Downtown Abbey fan, you will revel and may have already gone to see this, but even if you're not, the writing and directing, not to mention the acting by Maggie Smith should be enough to woo you to the theater. Lots going on down at the abbey.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                           Rated: PG                                             124mins.