The ‘Downton Abbey’ movie is just as delightful and touching as any episode of the six seasons of hit BBC television drama. In fact, it feels very much like an extended episode of the show but with grander and much higher stakes.
The story centers around the Crawley family and the staff of their ancestral home, Downton Abbey. At the cusp of the early 20th Century, the film presents a challenge to all the members of the household when the King and Queen of England will be making a stopover and staying for a night while on their tour of the United Kingdom.
For those familiar with the television show, ‘Downton Abbey’ has managed, over six years, to weave the stories of the British landed gentry and the English commoners who serve them. The various characters of the show consistently skirt the lines of propriety and civility as all their lives seem wonderfully intertwined but also given a sense of order by the British sense of social class hierarchies.
Which is not to say that the show has never questioned nor challenged the British status quo; in fact, it has gone so far as to force the family to accept one of their former staff, Tom Branson (Allen Leech) to become a part of the family when the youngest daughter Sybil (played by Jessica Brown Findlay, who left the show after season 2) and he had fallen in love. By the last three seasons of the show, one of the young cooks, Daisy (played by Sophie McShera), had become socially conscious and political and was not afraid of voicing her opinions when needed to be.
The interplay between aristocracy and the British common folk has always been at the heart of the show ‘Downton Abbey’ and the wonderful lessons in humanity that is garnered from their daily exchanges is what made the show so endearing. It is unapologetically British, most especially with the hilariously written one liners of the traditionalist grand matriarch of the Crawley family, Lady Violet (played by Maggie Smith), and her resistance to the changing of the times.
And at the end of the six season run of the show, it had put the family and their staff up against the challenges of the changing world. The movie takes off from here as the royal visit to Downton Abbey puts everything back into focus.
The magic is in the details: about customs and manners and politics and protocol. But in the observance of these traditions, the film (written by ‘Downton Abbey’ creator Julian Fellowes, and director Michael Engler, who had directed 4 episodes of the show) gives ample space for the audience to question whether all this pomp and circumstance is truly necessary in the 21st Century.
Many of the lovable characters from the series have returned for the 2-hour film and it adds quite a good deal of new characters as well. Oscar-nominee and theater star Imelda Staunton joins the cast as Lady Violet’s relation and there is bad blood between them. Tuppence Middleton plays Staunton’s maid with a secret of her own.
If you’re new to the show, the movie is written in such a way that you can easily pick up the relationships that are involved and can understand the severity of the situation that there in. It is enjoyable even without knowing the full history of these characters.
But for the people who’ve seen the show and loved it, the movie takes everything that worked before and magnifies it with immense camera work and a larger sense of period British luxury, pomp, circumstance, and of course, decorum.
Because if there’s anything that ‘Downton Abbey’ has always been good at, it has managed to question the social structures of Britain without ever having easy answers nor offering any cheap and sentimental solutions. At its core, it’s about people who genuinely care about each other and about the beautiful effects of civility and decency.
It makes perfect sense to return to Downton Abbey, when you consider the world today and all the news of hate and barbarism and chaos. The movie serves as a reminder of a more gentle and decent world, also at the cusp of change. It is a breath of fresh air in this dark and tumultuous era in human history and it really does feel like coming home.
My Rating:
'Downton Abbey' will be shown starting Sept 25 exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas: Greenbelt3, Trinoma, The 30th, Bonifacio High Street, and Alabang Town Center. Find showtimes for 'Downton Abbey' and book your tickets today!
