Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale Review: A Very Satisfying Ending To A Beloved Franchise

In Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, writer and creator Julian Fellowes pulls off an impressive trick. We rejoin the Crawley family and their servants in 1930, an auspicious year in world history – right after the New York Stock Exchange crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression began. Things could get very bad for the Earl of Grantham and his family, yet Fellowes manages to make things realistic, yet light and cheerful, as he’s done for 16 years with Downton Abbey.

Though it feels like we’ve said goodbye to Lord and Lady Grantham (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, respectfully) and the the other characters who live and work at Downton Abbey four times now, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale does feel like a proper sendoff. A new generation of Crawleys is ready to take the reins and navigate the upcoming troubles that the United Kingdom and its aristocracy will face in the coming decades of the 20th Century.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is first and foremost a goodbye.

Each of the previous three goodbyes in the Downton Abbey story – once in the TV series that wrapped up in 2015, and again in each of the previous movies, Downton Abbey in 2019, and Downton Abbey: A New Era in 2022 – have been satisfying, but this one really does feel like the end. These are characters whom we’ve come to know intimately over the years, and bidding them farewell was always going to be bittersweet. Fellowes and director Simon Curtis tell a new story, while managing to give us satisfying conclusions to almost every character. It’s another trick the creators have deftly pulled off.

As has become so common in the franchise, sweeping crane shots of Downton Abbey accompanied by composer John Lunn’s iconic theme music bring us all back to a place we know and love, and in this final installment, the music is especially poignant. It complements the bittersweet sentiment of the film perfectly.

The world is changing, and Downton must change with it to keep pace.

In Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, the United Kingdom is evolving at a rapid pace, as are things for the family, and we are thrust into the world of England in the 1930s. The Victorian Era has been over for over a quarter of a century. People have been through World War I, and a new Labour coalition in Parliament sweep in changes that will eventually spell doom for the British gentry. The Crawleys, especially Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), understand these changes, and it's up to her and the younger generation to navigate the future.

The movie opens with the neon lights and hustle and bustle of London’s West End. It’s a stark contrast from the beginning of the Downton Abbey story, which started in 1912 – before the Crawleys’ grand house even had electricity or a telephone. Lady Mary is on the verge of divorce, another somewhat modern convention that, as we see through the movie, isn’t yet socially acceptable. Remember, this is just a handful of years before King Edward VIII was forced to abdicate the throne for his relationship with a divorced woman. The transition between the old world and the new is at a nexus.

This struggle between Lord Grantham coming to terms with the future (and his proud family’s past) and the urgency to modernize is at the heart of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Is it possible to keep the traditions alive as the coming changes fight so hard against them? That’s where the film’s conflict is most pronounced. The cost to keep Downton running, not to mention the family’s London digs, is becoming impossible to maintain. The fear of letting down generations of Crawleys is ever-present, too, with the judgmental gaze of the late Violet Crawley (Dame Maggie Smith’s character, whose death in Downton Abbey: A New Era was our last goodbye before now) looking down on everything from her portrait in the entry hall of Downton.

Downton Abbey: A New Era Is Exactly What We’ve Come To Expect From The Franchise.

When it all comes together, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is what fans want and expect from the franchise. It’s predictably pleasant and has a wonderful ability to draw you in from the moment it starts. The movie isn’t going to challenge audiences, but that’s not the goal. There is enough tension to move things forward, but not so much that you ever feel uncomfortable. The settings are, as always, resplendent, giving movie-goers the eye candy we expect, and letting us in, once again, on lifestyles, both upstairs and downstairs, that most of us are completely unfamiliar with.

The cast is fantastic, with Paul Giamatti returning as Lady Crawley’s ne'er-do-well brother, Harold Levinson, in his first return to the franchise since Season 4 of the television show. Other returning cast members from past installments, including Dominic West as the actor Guy Dexter, are joined for the first time by Simon Russell Beale as Sir Hector Moreland, a snobby aristocrat who finds himself pitted against Isobel Grey (Penelope Wilton), which is never a good place to be for a character in the franchise.

It is sad to see some characters not returning, most notably Lady Maud, played by Imelda Staunton in the previous two movies, and her daughter Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton), who is mentioned by her husband, Tom Branson (Allen Leech), but is not seen in the movie. However, all the other important characters, like Carson (Jim Carter), Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael), Anna (Joanne Froggatt), and the rest, all get a proper sendoff in the end.

It’s goodbye to a franchise, and goodbye to our Edwardian-era friends, but there is hope for the future of the family and all the people they love and employ.