Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)

For Mother’s Day Mum and I went to have a lovely high tea and then we saw this movie. Mum loves Downton Abbey and earlier this year we watched all the seasons and the film read those reviews here and here. Thus, I could hardly wait to write this review and share my thoughts.

The film in short
The film is a follow-up to the 2019 feature film in which the Crawley family and Downton staff received a royal visit from the King and Queen of Great Britain. In this film, the family goes to France as they learn that their Grandmother has had a Rendez-Vous with Frenchman, all these years later it appears that he left her a villa. The rest of Downton steps into the world of making talking films. I got some of this information here.

Trailer

If the link doesn’t work, click here.

My thoughts
When I went into this film, I thought to myself I am not going to be sad that Mary and Tom are not together. They are happy with their partners and it’s all good they are like siblings. If only this was true…

We start with the wedding and it is all lovely. The problem I have is the fact that Tom is a Catholic, his first wedding was Catholic he had his daughter baptized in the Catholic church. And for him to then marry in a protestant church makes no sense? I mean he changed a lot I get that but changing your religion? I find that odd especially because it was so important to him.

Anyway. The film was great. The ending to me left a lot to be desired. I loved seeing everyone again.I loved the two storylines of the film as well as France. I loved how the Grandmother thought of Sybbi and I was quite surprised that no one else had seemed to think about that before. This little girl is Sybil’s only daughter I mean that ought to count for something? In the end, I feel that the bulk of the movie was good. It was interesting, had some plot twists, and had a natural pace. Once again Maggie Smith was so funny, that everyone in the theater laughed out loud on several occasions.

Here is the thing though, at the end of the film too much happened at one time. There was an ending, the ending of the film that was taped. Everyone that should have been together was. Lady Mary grew up a lot and remained a good girl this time. More on this later. In the last few minutes, everything happens at once, someone dies, someone is born, a big secret is revealed, or was it? Someone nearly died but wouldn’t. It was all a bit too much. It felt very much as if they could have made the end so much better but decided against it and in the end it was a shame.

I love Mary, I talked about this at length. I don’t like how they kept saying she would become exactly like her grandmother. Which I do not think is true, I want the best for her. She went through so much she fought so hard and now she is in a marriage where her husband to just not there. Why couldn’t they just let the guy die? Do you mean to tell me that our Mary would put up with this nonsense? I beg to differ completely. I thought the vibe with the film guy was so fun and he also reminded me of Matthew in the best way. Sigh… Oh, how I hope they have something grand planned for her. For now, consider me disappointed.

In the end, it was a great film. It was fun, everyone looked amazing. The film was well thought out for the most part. If you love the series I do recommend this film fully.