Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: (The relative complexity of this plot overwhelms my self-imposed space limitations as I try to make these reviews more informationally-digestible; if you want considerably more details please visit this site [with Spoilers of course].) The English countryside in 1930 now contains a “scandal” for the Crawley family, owners of the Downton Abbey estate, because a daughter, Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery), of the owner of this magnificent property, Earl of Grantham Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and his wife, Countess of Grantham Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern)—accepted procedure of the time is that only males could be the rightful owners of such dwellings—has recently been divorced, so she’s shunned by other upper-class residents of this area, even to the point of being turned out of a ball because some royals are expected. To make matters worse, Cora’s brother, Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti), is arriving from America with the horrid news that much of the family’s wealth was lost in the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Harold’s friend/financial advisor, Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), who wants to invest their remaining assets with promises of a great windfall (Mary’s so attracted to Gus they end up drunken in bed, which leads to a blackmail attempt on his part regarding that night with Mary when she balks at Gus’ proposed investments). Tom Branson (Allen Leech)—once a chauffeur, now a part of the family even after his wife died, learns Gus is a notorious swindler who’s then sent away by Mary and her sister, Edith Pelham (Laura Carmicheal). Robert agrees to break tradition by turning over the management of Downton to Mary while he and Cora move to their smaller dower house (taking along a couple of servants, even though they’ll just be in a flat). ⇒Mary’s reputation gets enhanced when word gets around playwright Noël Coward’s (Arty Froushan) coming to visit so now everyone wants to come to a Downton event, then she’s supported by Isobel, Lady Merton (Penelope Wilton) to present a prize at the annual county fair, so she confidently takes over the family estate as her parents willingly move on to their smaller residence, with various servants—Mrs. Beryl Patmore Mason (Lesley Nicol), Mr. Charles Carson (Jim Carter)—happily retiring as well.⇐
SO WHAT? I admit I never saw any episodes of U.K.’s ITV, then the U.S. PBS series Downton Abbey (2010-’15 on PBS [if you’re not a long-time Downton … devotee you might want to visit this extensive written summary or maybe just a much shorter video {10:08}]) so when I went with my well-informed wife, Nina, to a (pre-COVID) theater to see the first of the 3 movies based on this series (also called Downton Abbey [Michael Engler, 2019] with a lot of verbiage also available for you if you’re interested at both this Wikipedia summary and my ridiculously-long review) I depended on her insightful comments to help me make sense of a vast number of characters with various, easy-to-mix-up (at least for me) interrelationships, yet, despite notable aspects of my enjoyment at seeing this complex (for the uninitiated) story I still was won over just enough to go to 3 stars. Then, 3 years later (after the first assault of COVID-19 died down some) we were back in big-screen darkness for the follow-up, Downton Abbey: A New Era (Curtis, 2022), which you can also lose yourself in with another long-plot summary and another sleep-aid review from me which must have somehow intrigued me better: I gave it 3½ stars. Yet, even after all of that background when we were able to see … The Grand Finale last weekend I was still dependent on Nina to remind me whatever I needed to know about whomever popped up on screen (excellent timing, though, as we were able to stream it [no theater this time, the virus has picked up steam again in our San Francisco Bay area] on the night of her birthday [no exposé from me on which one it was], to her great enjoyment), as there was just too much for me to remember beyond Robert and Cora Crawley.
Obviously, though, this closure on the Crawley clan and their upper class/servant connections worked even better for me than my previous exposures to this convoluted material, as I’ve given it my normally-highest ranking of 4 stars (saving 4½ and 5 for truly magnificent cinematic work, such as Midnight Cowboy [John Schlesinger, 1969], her choice for our other weekend night, clearly 5 stars for me [still the only X-rated film to win Oscar’s Best Picture, even as it’s now been re-rated R]). Maybe I was just encouraged to see so many happy people—except Gus—at the end of their long on-screen journeys, in contrast to the plethora of miserable souls populating the daily news, celebrating that situations can work out at least sometimes, visually illustrated by the last shot of Robert and Cora walking to their new, less ornate home, overcoming the various resistances they’d faced throughout … The Grand Finale. (I know, a bit of a spoiler, but you need to know what that shot represents when you see it in the trailer. [Similar to the photo just above, but with Cora replacing the dog—no snide comments, please! But, if you do wish a bit of snarkiness, how ironic is that in 1930 upper-class England a divorced woman was looked on with such contempt by some while in 2025 England has a divorced King? The U.S. has a twice-divorced President, so we're #1!])
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: If, like me, all of the background information presented about this huge cast of characters in the various episodes of the Downton Abbey story still leave you a bit confused on how all of these people relate to each other you might get it all straightened out if you refer back to that first Downton … link I offered in the review segment just above about the TV series where you can explore an extensive Crowley family tree (including older generations now deceased). But for now, just know that should you be interested in seeing … The Grand Finale it’s still in 2,050 domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters (opened in 3,694 of them on September 12, 2025; so far has made $42.5 million in them, $87.9 million worldwide), but if you’d prefer a home viewing you can turn to streaming where it rents for $19.99 on Apple TV+ (along with other locations, according to the official website cited at the beginning of this posting), with the CCAL generally encouraging you to see it somewhere as the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are at a hefty 91%, although the snobs (as bad at times at English aristocrats) at Metacritic gave it only a 66% average score. Meredith Goldstein of The Boston Globe is one of the enthusiastic supporters: “There’s nostalgia, not only for an era, but for much-loved characters; there’s beautiful scenery and pretty plates; there are excellent hats and coats; and there is a sufficient amount of honoring the late Maggie Smith, a.k.a. Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, whose presence looms large not only as a character, but as an actress. […] The stakes in the film are high enough for some plot, but low enough to maintain healthy blood pressure. There is a delicious lack of exposition — and plenty of inside jokes for the true fans. […] I watched this one grinning, celebrating how far Lady Edith has come (aren’t we all Lady Edith?), and how the hard-working staff below is finally making their way to the top. […] It’s 1930, after all.” Overall, I'm in secure agreement.
But, as you must know, for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction, as voiced by Kevin Maher of The Times (London), who's clearly not that impressed: “Well, it’s certainly the finale. The ‘grand’ is overreaching and can only refer to the towering levels of kitsch on display here, or perhaps the absurd presumption that the cinemagoing public is crying out for closure, and for answers to the quintessential Downton questions about the dangers of modernity, the threat of impecunity and whether or not Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) will be able to achieve multiple orgasms during her latest session with local farmer Mr Mason (Paul Mackriell Copley).” So, as the Downton antics are set to fade from our long-held memories (if you have such) I’ll leave you with my usual closing device of a Musical Metaphor, this one with connections to another Abbey, this time the Abbey Road recording studios where another iconic English group, The Beatles, did some of their finest work including this song, “All You Need Is Love” (when the place was known as the EMI Studios) performed on June 25, 1967 as part of the Our World broadcast, the first live televised event via satellite, seen by over 400 million people in 25 countries (song on U.S. version of the Magical Mystery Tour album) at the honorable location of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_paPrw0gAUo&list=RD_paPrw0gAUo &start_radio=1 because I feel the ultimate message behind all of the individual successes in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale comes down to belief in and sharing of love, just as this song was intended to celebrate. Some rejectors find it naive in today's world, but it still works well for me.
SHORT TAKES
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