Moving along at a fast clip, Downton Abbey, the movie, hits all the high points: the monarchy, the peerage, the advent of industrialism and the cognizance of homosexuality.
A fairytale of manners and silver, a sealed, handwritten letter leads us back in time, sending us to the Downton Abbey morning room.
We watch the letter pass from castle, to train, to jiggedy, gilded mail truck, to cyclist until the letter is passed from the young butler, Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier), into the hands of the Earl of Grantham, Robert Crowley (Hugh Bonneville). As is true with so many dutiful domestics, the servants know of the letter well before their masters.
The letter deftly brings the familiar Crowley family and their servants into frame and sets the stage for the impending arrival of King George V and Queen Mary in a fortnight.
The Downton Abbey series, which thrilled, yet baffled, American audiences with its foreign manners and affectations, rises to even greater heights of pomp and circumstance with the impending monarchical visitation.
The movie again pits the familiar foils of Dowager Countess of Grantham, Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith), against Lady Merton, Isobel Crawley Grey (Penelope Wilton); and Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier) against Mr. Carson (Jim Carter).
But before the arrival of the King and Queen, a feud erupts between the Downton servants and the royal staff. Americans may be astonished by the seeming pettiness of British class and manners, property and duty. But, remember, England is a small, island country--no bigger than Alabama--where honor and duty create invisible walls that define one's personal space, and manners are the social language of class.
Taking place in a period between WWI and WWII, we witness to the fraying edges of the British class system. This is most apparent in the storyline between Cora Crawley's widower Tom Branson (Allen Leech) and the Queen's lady's maid's maid, Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton).
The ending, neatly wrapped up in a perfect bow, pairs all off like the parade into Noah's ark. And like Noah, there will likely be a dawn to a new day and, perhaps, another sequel.
A pleasure to watch, with lovely settings, pastoral views and a rousing soundtrack, the movie is comforting in its predictability. And like all good fairytales, it is a story deftly grounded in hopeful morality.
