Downton Abbey: A New Era Review
This weekend the second movie in the Downton Abbey franchise hits theaters. As a point of reference, I haven’t seen the tv show or the previous movies. So this really was my first exposure to this world. And I went on a late Mother's Day outing with my mom and grandparents. How is the movie? Let’s get started!
The Good:
And for me this is a movie that looks great with its production design and costumes. The movie does a great job of transporting you back to the year 1927. It looks beautiful and it looks like a different time period through-out the movie. It also helps that all of the characters are in these nice looking suits and dresses, then once again transport you back to a different time period and a different part of the world…that I haven’t been to. Also, when they go to France you do get plenty of nice looking images and places that I would like to go and visit just based on how nice they look.
Also, the cast here is very good and I think that everybody does a great job in the role. And since some of these actors have been playing these roles for over 10 years now they know how to play these characters. They know what works about them, and what doesn’t work about them. Two of the standouts in this movie are Jim Carter as Mr. Carson, who is just so Alfred-like, very nice, and very sweet. All of it just works as a whole and makes for a great character. The other stand out is Maggie Smith who is the scene stealer, who gets the best laughs of the movie. And acts so unlike how somebody with her power normally would.
And possibly the biggest surprise about this movie is just how funny it actually was. And since I hadn’t seen the previous movie or the tv show, I wasn’t expecting as much humor as there was. But my theater and I were laughing out loud through-out the run time. And like I said, Maggie Smith probably gets the most and best jokes of the movie. But everybody in the movie gets some line that makes you laugh.
And another thing here is the story here is a lot more layered and has more twists and turns then I was expecting. And there are some things that happen around the halfway mark that shocked me, I wasn’t expecting them to go down the direction that they were heading. And I’d imagine that if I had seen the tv show or the movie then the twists might have had a bigger impact on me. But as somebody who is brand new to this world, I still found them pretty surprising.
Finally, this is a movie that does have a really good score to it. The main theme that plays through-out the movie is very good, it’s catchy, and iconic. But all through-out the movie it does have a very solid score that worked for me.
The Bad:
First thing that comes to mind is this movie felt like two different movies squished into one movie. Where you have a movie being filmed at the castle and another storyline taking place in Southern France with a man who has connections to Maggie Smith’s character. And both of those felt strong enough to carry their own movies. And so depending on which story line you liked more, you might be disappointed that your favorite storyline wasn’t given more screen time. And as I was watching it, I was expecting them to intersect in the finale of the movie but they never did. That was a frustrating and weird choice in my mind.
Also, there are some things that happen in the finale of the movie that felt a bit predictable to me. I was able to put some pieces together as to where all of this was going. And my predictions for this movie were correct.
Final Thoughts: In general, I didn’t really know what to expect going into this movie. But I gotta say…I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It had a lot to offer and overall, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. There are some issues with the story here and there but overall a very solid movie that I dug.
The Score: 8.6/10 (B)
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