“Downton Abbey: A New Era” is bookended by a wedding and a funeral. In between, a good deal happens: Babies are born and paternities questioned, long-simmering romances clinched and fresh ones set …
” is bookended by a wedding and a funeral. In between, a good deal happens: Babies are born and paternities questioned, long-simmering romances clinched and fresh ones set to bloom; an excursion takes a fraction of the family to France while a film crew keeps the rest of them busy back home. It all adds up to rather more than audiences of 2019’s standalone “Downton Abbey” feature must have expected, if only because the earlier film seemed conspicuously uninterested in starting anything new.
As ceremonial as such spinoffs come, the first “Downton Abbey” movie served as a kind of fan-service coda, contrived to put a neat bow and tassels on the many characters and intrigues that had been seeded over six seasons of the British TV series. It was all about closure, and now, with “A New Era,” creator and screenwriter Julian Fellowes dedicates still more energy to sorting out the loose ends, although this time, he provides something more compelling than a royal visit to engage us.
As the film opens, Violet Crawley — everyone’s favorite character, Lady Grantham, of the barbed tongue and stiletto wit — announces that she has inherited a villa in the south of France, gifted to her by an old flame and now contested by his widow . To sort out the matter, Violet dispatches her son Richard , his wife, Cora , granddaughter Edith and a handful of others, including old-habits-die-hard ex-butler Carson .
It’s a clever idea to bring antique klieg lights and hand-cranked cameras into what is effectively a great big film set already, transformed with every episode by production designer Donal Woods and costume designer Anna Mary Scott Robbins. It leads one to consider how the hit series has impacted its own historic locations, turning Highclere Castle , the town of Bampton and such into tourist destinations.
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