Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – a ‘comfort’ watch for fans
The final film of the franchise gives viewers a chance to say goodbye

“Like a hot water bottle on a cold night”, “Downton Abbey” has “long been a great comfort to us Brits”, said Dulcie Pearce in The Sun.
In the first episode of the TV drama, in 2010, the aristocratic Crawley family learnt about the sinking of the “Titanic”; then, over six series and two feature films, we followed them and their servants through the First World War and the influenza pandemic. Now, it is time to say goodbye.
This final film opens in London in 1930, where Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) has scandalised polite society by divorcing her husband; then her American uncle (Paul Giamatti) arrives at Downton with a slimy friend (Alessandro Nivola) to confess that he has lost the family fortune in bad business deals. Of course, the Dowager Countess (played so memorably by the late Maggie Smith) is gone; but we are reminded of her via lingering shots of a huge portrait in the hall.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Other things, however, are reassuringly familiar, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. Elizabeth McGovern “still simpers her lines”, as Lady Grantham, instead of speaking them. “Mr Barrow’s personality transplant remains firmly in place.” And Mr Carson, though retired, is still fussing over the cutlery. As for the plot, well there isn’t a proper one; instead, we have multiple storylines: Mr Molesley has written a film; Noël Coward turns up, with a plan to use Lady Mary’s divorce as the basis for a play; Mrs Carson is running the village fair.
The plodding script is too reliant on characters walking into rooms to announce plot points, said India Block in London's The Standard; the film is almost hypnotically dull; and it grips ever tighter to its deeply conservative vision of a rosy past “that never was”. Still, fans will no doubt relish this chance for a final wallow in Julian Fellowes’s warm bath.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Trump wants to revive coal. Will it work?
Talking Points Wind, solar and natural gas are ascendant
-
Is the first AI ‘actor’ the beginning of Hollywood’s existential crisis?
Today's Big Question 'Tilly Norwood' sparks a backlash
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytelling
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film Festival
Feature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
-
Book reviews: ‘All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation’ and ‘Mother Mary Come to Me’
Feature Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘balls to the wall’ memoir and Arundhati Roy’s terrifying mother
-
6 rustic homes on ranches
Feature Featuring copper kitchen counters in Colorado and a 380-acre property in California
-
Steve: a ‘gripping’ drama starring Cillian Murphy
The Week Recommends Murphy plays the frazzled headmaster of a boarding school for ‘delinquent’ boys in this bold Indie film
-
The Lady from the Sea: a ‘thrillingly contemporary’ Ibsen adaptation
The Week Recommends ‘Luminous’ cast dazzle in Simon Stone’s ‘hugely enjoyable’ production
-
Black Rabbit: slick crime thriller set in a high-end New York restaurant
The Week Recommends Two Manhattan brothers resort to ‘ever-more high-stakes’ schemes to tackle ‘huge’ gambling debts in the ‘glossy’ series
-
One Battle After Another: a ‘terrifically entertaining’ watch
The Week Recommends Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest release is a ‘high-octane action thriller’ and a ‘surefire Oscar frontrunner’