Tea and Sympathy

Over 15 years, through six seasons of a popular TV series, and now three films, the astonishingly talented screenwriter Julian Fellowes has given us a remarkable gift: a richly detailed saga of the Crawley family, denizens of Yorkshire, England, and owners and protectors of the fictional Downton Abbey.

But the series and movie trilogy wouldn’t have been as successful, in my opinion, had the stories focused solely on the Crawleys. Fellowes made the smart choice to contrast their wealth and privilege with the daily grind of the servant class downstairs. Now, this upstairs/downstairs dichotomy has been done before, but not to such stellar effect.

The original idea was to create a TV project, a one-and-done affair, like so many British productions that came before. But Fellowes and the producers soon realized they had lightning in a bottle. Worldwide acclaim for the small-screen presentation inevitably morphed into the idea of a theatrical release to carry the narrative forward.

At last, there would be a film version of the Downton Abbey story. It involved a high-stakes visit by the King and Queen, and proved so popular that a second movie soon followed. Fans were delighted by the “New Era” premise of a silent movie shot at Downtown, and by the notion that matriarch Violet Crawley, played by veteran actress Dame Maggie Smith, had inherited a villa in the south of France.

Fellowes also chose to close the second film with the death of “Granmama,” which served as both a tribute to the character as well as the actress. Smith, in real life, died shortly after the film was finished.

At the time, many thought the Downton Abbey story should end there. But cinematic trilogies are more popular than ever and Fellowes said he had found a story that would give the sizeable cast a last hurrah. And true to his word, he gifted the Downton fandom a “Grand Finale.”

The plot this time is largely centered around Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery, who we learn has been served divorce papers by her second husband, played by Matthew Goode, who is wholly absent from the film.

In the late 20s, especially among the British gentry, the concept of divorce was taboo, so Lady Mary is suddenly on the outs, even among the Crawleys’ closest friends, and is also a source of embarrassment for her father, The Earl of Grantham, played by Hugh Bonneville. The resulting scandal threatens the family’s social standing as it is fodder for even the London press.

To balance the drama of Mary’s predicament, there’s a welcome distraction in the highly-publicized visit to Downton by the American dramatist and composer Cole Porter. His scenes are among the movie’s highlights.

As the story shuffles into 1930, there’s change in the air. The very future of Downton is at stake, after the Earl’s brother-in-law loses a sizeable fortune, money that the Crawleys had counted on to repair and sustain the Abbey.

And there’s change, too, in the fortunes of the servant class who have cooked and cleaned and kept the Crawleys in the lap of, if not royal, certainly minor luxury.

“The Grand Finale” is a valentine to a bygone era and also a welcome departure from the chaos of cinematic superheroes.

See it on the big screen if you can.