Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – Film Review
by Brian Merriman

Directed by Simon Curtis
Screenplay by Julian Fellowes
Based on Downton Abbey · by Julian Fellowes
Starring Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth McGovern, Penelope Wilton, Laura Carmichael, Alan Leech and a host of others.

Duration 123 minutes

Downton Abbey, The Grand Finale is precisely that. The much-loved TV series and its three subsequent movies reach their natural conclusion in an opulent, lavish, and nostalgic feature that beguiles, entertains, and evokes emotion.

Filmed following the death of Dame Maggie Smith in 2024, the movie is also a loving homage to this legendary star, who dominated all the Downton stories up to this, as Violet, the Dowager Lady Grantham. Her presence is felt in this movie, in the set, the location and in the script.

Julian Fellowes is in his element as writer/creator. He has a gift in allowing us to voyeur on a lifestyle that would be alien to us. He draws up characters that live the aristocratic life and sketches their trials and triumphs eloquently. They live in a constant hierarchy that isn’t often kind. They worry and are affected so much by what others in their class think, as they simultaneously struggle to advance and prolong their loyalty to that class system.

But Fellowes, who relishes in the blatant snobbery of the Crawley family circumstances, also gifts us with an intimacy with those below stairs. It is not doubted that Downton needs a stellar cast, and it gets one, because Fellowes gives a real truth to the saying that ‘there is no such thing as a small part’. Each character he introduces has a part to play; their own story stands alone, hence the endless successful online clips from the series that light up social media. It is a stellar cast assembled by Casting Director Jill Trevellick.

The Grand Finale is lavish. Set with a backdrop and underscore of Noel Coward’s England, composed by John Lunn, we are whisked into 1930 with our favourite characters showing their age and living their lives in a changing England. Violet’s witticisms are shared out amongst the cast with Bonneville, McGovern and Wilton being particularly worthy successors of the necessary sharp delivery. Wilton’s Lady Merton is that reassuring presence that Smith’s character’s legacy continues to live on.

If it wasn’t called The Grand Finale, it might well be titled Edith’s Triumph. This long-suffering character, beautifully played by Laura Carmichael, who lived in the shadows of two more flamboyant sisters, really comes into her own and shows she indeed has all the ability and courage necessary to take on the battles, her elder sister, Mary, classically played by Michelle Dockery, can mess up.

The location, the dressing of the sets (Linda Wilson)  and costuming (Anna Robbins) are divine under production designer Donal Woods. It is beautiful to look at.

All the subplots are wound up neatly and appropriately. Barrow and Dexter, The Carsons, The Bates, The Parkers, The Masons, The  Molesleys, etc, in character studies and stories that British period drama excels in.

All the intrigue upstairs is played out from a beautiful opening sequence in a theatre in 1930, to the changing times affecting a country show, to Ascot, and not forgetting the visiting Americans who do their best to stir things up. The Crawleys, Mertons, Hexhams, and Bransons have all survived the great changes they have brought us through from Victorian times to the decade that, unknowingly in 1930, will throw up another world war for that generation.

With so much to pack in, the 123 minutes can momentarily slow, but the satisfaction of seeing the hopes, dreams, challenges and legacy of a huge cast of characters is eminently satisfying. There is more than a tinge of regret by the final sequences (and stay for the credits) and perhaps a hope that young George may yet re-emerge as an adult in a further spin-off with his growing cousins, now clearly on track to ensure the survival of Downton in the latter parts of the twentieth century.

If you are a Downton fan, and I unashamedly am, you will find this Grand Finale as delicious as it should be. Julian Fellowes is a Master of this genre, like Coward and Wilde before him. He has created unique characters with wit and wisdom which will remain with us long after the curtain comes down. Downton is a real treat to enjoy one last time.