Downton Abbey

One of the things about being a film critic is that you don't watch a lot of television.  Sure, I'll catch things on Netflix, but after you've spent the weekend seeing usually between two to four new films at your local cinema, the last thing you want to do is binge watch something.  So, that brings about the obvious question - What does a film critic do when he or she is faced with a movie based on a TV show that they know nothing about, because they've never gotten around to watching it?

In the case of Downton Abbey, you bring along someone who has watched every episode multiple times, and hope they can explain the backstories of these characters to you.  This is at least what I did.  Here is a movie that is not interested in speaking to a large audience.  It exists simply for the already existing fanbase as one last opportunity to spend some time with the characters they have fallen in love with over multiple seasons.  The movie even unfolds kind of like an extended episode of a TV show.  Aside from some impressive aerial shots of the mansion setting and the surrounding countryside, there's very little here that could be considered "grand" or even cinematic.  There are a lot of characters and subplots at play here, some of which work, some others that don't.  But overall, the emphasis is on the dialogue and getting to catch up with fan favorites.

Obviously, this left me feeling like more than an outsider.  I was reminded of watching M. Night Shyamalan's Glass back in January, a movie that felt like it had been designed for a very specific audience, of which I was not a part of.  However, unlike that experience, I was not bored here.  There was enough I could grasp about these characters and their connections.  I won't pretend that I knew everything that was going on.  But, I was intrigued enough, and found the movie beautifully shot.  Obviously, the fans will get much more out of this.  I heard audible gasps from the audience at certain points, while I remained silent, due to my lack of knowledge.  Still, at the very least, the appeal of the show was able to come through for me.

Set some time after the events of the TV show, the film follows the various people and servants who work at luxurious Downton Abbey, and their reaction to a Royal visit when a letter arrives informing them that King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) will be spending the night there.  From there, the movie goes off in multiple directions as they prepare for the momentous occasion.  Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) decides that butler Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier) may not be ready to handle the responsibility, so she temporarily recalls Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) out of retirement to take over.  The staff of Downton are initially excited to be cooking for and serving the King and Queen, only to be met with disappointment that the Royal Staff will be taking over.  There is also an assassination attempt and a thief within the house thrown in.

I will say this, the movie does a good job of juggling its huge cast and multiple plots.  Sure, the movie is somewhat overstuffed, but it manages to stay afloat.  We have a lot of family drama and family secrets being revealed as the entire cast of the show is reunited.  Chief among the secrets concerns family matriarch Violet (a scene-stealing Maggie Smith) being reunited with her estranged cousin,  Maud Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton).  I am pretty comfortable saying that no matter who your favorite character on the show was, you will not be disappointed, as the movie's main concern seems to be giving everyone their equal amount of screen time.  Even if I felt more than a little in over my head early on keeping these characters and their relationships straight, I felt a little more at ease as the film went on, and was comfortable by the end.

This at least proves that Downton Abbey knows what it is doing.  I would not recommend this to anyone who has not watched the series, unless they enlist the aid of a fan such as I did before attending the film.  Even then, it might not seem like much.  Still, this is a movie that was able to gradually grab a light hold on me.  Not so much that I want to know everything that happened leading up to it, but enough that I can say that I found the movie pleasant.  If I had been familiar with the show, I would have found it so much more.

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