Downton Abbey Movie- Dinner is Served...At Last!
*spoiler alert
The latent mania over minutiae, simmering since the series “ended”, is stoked again to inferno proportions amid a fetish of silver polishing, gown altering and, alas, expensive trinkets gone missing from the drawing room!
The classic upstairs-downstairs formula is once again upended as servants take center stage in this long-awaited, big screen treatment of the ambitious series that dared to portray class structure and dinner clothes as a normal way of life.
The plot of the movie is structured exactly as the series - the servants of an English manor outwit the somewhat bumbling aristocrats, but this time... even the King and Queen of England are outsmarted! Only Downton could get away with such an absurd premise, but it does so with such style and grace that the viewer is delighted rather than dumbfounded by the superior strategic skills of the lower class.
The film opens with sweeping views of Downton Abbey and breathtaking vistas of the expansive grounds of Highclere Castle, never before seen on the series. The visual experience is nothing less than an aerial eye-extravaganza of Cinderella’s castle.
Gratefully, the original cast is back - though I would have loved a cameo from O’Brien (Lady Cora’s evil former maid). This time the honor of the Downton servants is at stake when the king’s servants attempt to upstage them on their own turf!
Some of you are rolling your eyes at this point - servants upset because they are unable to serve their wealthy overlords? In the world of Downton Abbey, this is serious business. Who gets to serve whom is strictly ordered and forms an unbreakable class system among the servants, who can be just as snooty as the rich folks!
What distinguishes Downton from every other series is its manic attention to detail. We are taken on a 3 minute journey of a letter from it being signed (and sealed) by the King in the palace to the handing of it to a footman to a train - slowly winding from the city to the country - to being sorted to being at last delivered to the Downton Abbey butler, who, of course, notices that the letter is from the King and tells all the other servants.
This unprecedented “mail” scene could have been a movie by itself but is merely part of Downton’s dramatic focus on details- how things are done and when is of extreme importance. Many times the viewer is alerted to something being left undone by a sly comment from an aristocrat. This is how Downton gently lures you into “their way” of thinking. No detail is to be overlooked, which is the command given by Lord Grantham, head of Downton Abbey, when the King’s arrival is confirmed.
The servants burst into activity along with the local citizens. The owner of the grocery store tearfully describes his opportunity to feed the king as “the high point of my career” while lamenting that his deceased father (the former grocer) isn’t there to see him order groceries for the king.
An odd moment is when Carson the butler, now a retired gardener, is drafted back into service by Lady Mary because she notices that the new butler, Thomas (the former footman), hasn’t polished the silver enough times. Her character has grown from a spoiled and imperious daughter into an authoritative and responsible lady of the house.
All of the characters have arced into even more interesting iterations of themselves. Thomas, a fan favorite, is still bad, but more responsible. Lady Edith is still insecure as she questions her new role as a housewife instead of a career woman. Tom, the former Irish Republican chauffeur, has fully matured into a British monarchist (though he swears he isn’t). Lady Mary doubts her relevance and considers selling Downton while her husband travels in America. And of course, the Grand Dame, Lady Crawley (Maggie Smith) steals the show with so many hilarious one-liners that other characters simply vanish in her presence. And yes, she’s plotting to expand Downton Abbey’s vast wealth by any means necessary.
Journeying back to Downton Abbey was a wonderful experience, like having a vivid dream about a favorite vacation or holiday from years earlier. Being immersed in a bucolic world where a simple matter of birth determines what you have, where you live and how far you can go somehow clarifies life. Being vexed over a dinner menu brings balance to a world gone mad. And the polishing -the constant polishing creates a rhythm and purpose palely mocked in modern life by rubbing away persistent screen smudges with a Starbucks napkin.
Despite a couple of convenient "coincidental" meetings, Downton’s story is tight as tweed, proving that it’s formula of gently brainwashing common people into believing that we are uncommon and have an important connection to our “betters” works well on the big and small screens.
So by all means, see this elegant hallucination of life as it ought to be for everybody! And don’t forget. Downton’s details are on the dinner table. Don’t be late…or underdressed.