I decided to go to the 3:30pm showing of Downton Abbey, The Grand Finale movie at a local Regal theater, across the street from my townhome community. I took a stroll to the theater, relaxing to the warm humidity of September’s Indian Summer. Since I was early, I played with my iPhone until almost three. I bought my ticket and waited in the lounge area, noticing that they added a bar section at the theater. I also noticed they added three liquor drinks based on characters from Downton Abbey. I haven’t seen any of the Downton Abbey series. But earlier this spring, I checked out Fleurs de Villes mannequins at South Coast Plaza, displaying some of the Downton Abbey characters in floral and nature outfits. I was curious to see this movie to check out the actual characters and their personality.
The characters had a tinge of sarcastic satire. The house had an elegant Old European style, as well as the clothing and fashion looked very upper class, which I thought looked twenties art deco. The women wore hats and sun umbrellas, while the men wore top hats like magicians or freemasons. I enjoyed checking out the room scenes as well as the fashion styles.
But the story is about family life, and changes over the years, leading to everyone moving on. After Lady Mary’s divorce, she starts dealing with all the societal negativity from others, and someone comically suggests she should consider moving to America because divorce is normal in America. There is an instant mutual attraction when she meets Gus Sambrook. They hang out together, flirting and drinking, until she becomes drunk, and they end up in bed together. She wakes up in the morning, feeling dazed and confused, similar to when Rosemary (from Rosemary’s Baby), woke up after the Satanic Ritual. When Robert and Cora decide to retire from Downton Abbey, Robert Crawley, the 7th Earl of Grantham, goes with his daughter Lady Mary Talbot to check out a smaller place in an apartment building.
He likes the new apartment, and they buy it right away. His wife, Cora Crawley, the Countess of Grantham, immediately works on moving into the new place. Charles Carson has now retired from being the Downton Abbey butler, making him appear quite bored and restless because he missed working. There is Edith Pelham, the Marchioness of Hexham, who is the 2nd daughter of Lord and Lady Grantham. Lady Edith Crawley was often the overlooked daughter, which made her appear similar to a attention-starved wallflower. She almost married twice but the two relationships, each ended up in a big disaster. She finally finds true love with her third relationship, Herbert Pelham.There is a gay couple, Guy Dexter, who is an actor, and Thomas Barrow, the former butler at Downton Abbey. Barrow has now become Guy’s assistant. Most of the characters have either died or retired, and the Downton Abbey house now appears empty. They are all transitioning into a new life, doing something else.
Such characters include Robert and Cora Crawley, Edith Pelham and Herbert Pelham, Phyllis Baxter Molesley and Joseph Moseley, Albert Mason and Beryl Patmore Mason, John Bates and Anna Bates, Andy Parker and Daisy Parker, Tom Branson and his second wife, Lucy Smith, Elsie Hughes Carson and Charlie Carson, and Richard Grey and Isobel Grey. Other characters include Sir Hector Moreland, Noel Coward, Lady Sarah Petersfield, Sybbie Branson, and Harold Levinson. At the end of the movie, there was a tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, who died last year. She played Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham. It is also mentioned in one of the videos, by one of the cast members, that the transition is about moving from the Old World to the New World.
Directed by Simon Curtis, written by Julian Fellowes, and produced by Gareth Neame, Julian Fellowes, and Liz Trubridge, the movie starred Elizabeth McGovern, Paul Giamatti, Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Penelope Wilton, Fifi Hart, and other actors. This movie is the sequel movie to Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022), as well as the third movie in the Downton Abbey franchise. The movie takes place in 1930s London.
Cora’s brother, Harold, arrives in London from America after their mother, Martha dies. Harold’s financial adviser Gus Sambrook comes with him to London. Harold had wasted his mother’s money on bad investments. He now wants to invest Downton Abbey assets in order to repay Gus. Someone informs Tom that Gus is a fraud and con artist. Tom feels that Gus had embezzled Harold’s money. He warns the Crawleys and Harold. Edith tells Gus to stay away from the family. Harold returns to America. Robert gives Downton Abbey to his daughter Lady Mary, as he and Cora move to their new residence, Downton Dower House. They take with them their servants.
Mr. Moseley, now a full-time screenwriter, used to be the Downton Abbey footman. Noel Coward announces he wrote a play, Private Lives, based on Lady Mary’s divorce. Daisy Parker prepares her first dinner for the family because Mrs. Patmore had retired after fifty years at Downton Abbey. At the end of the movie, Lady Mary stands alone inside Downton Abbey, reminiscing with flashbacks about past experiences and people who have passed on to the other side, as Robert and Cora calmly walk out of the Downton Abbey, walking over the grassy estate ground, toward their new apartment. The movie ends with all the couples happy, each enjoying their families, while Mary is reading to her kids.
