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"Downton Abbey: A New Era" Tackles the Nostalgia of Filmmaking with Delightful Fan Service.


Downton Abbey: A New Era is undoubtedly a cash grab. Kitschy and filled to the brim with fan service, the film has no other reason for existing. And yet, it’s lovely. There is something to be said for escapist cinema. For Downton fans, knowing that everything will be alright in the end is a special comfort, which is what’s leading scores of girlfriend groups, mothers and daughters, single ladies, and ladies dragging their men to theatres. Turns out sitting next to a bunch of middle-aged/potential Karen/ Harry Styles fans can enhance the Downton experience.


A New Era is undoubtedly a piece of fan service, but at least Julian Fellowes kept it fun and self-aware. For example, Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) and Maud, Dowager Baroness Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton) find themselves in a random hat shop on the Riviera. They are mistaken as a lovely married couple. The camera pushes in on Maud’s amused expression because cutting to Carson’s embarrassed one. The joke: Carter and Staunton are married in real life, have been since 1983, and their daughter Bessie Carter currently plays Prudence Featherington on Bridgerton. Another inside piece of fan service: describing Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley) as having the looks of a “fairytale prince.” After leaving the Downton series, Stevens went on to play the Beast in Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. One that hits a more tender note: a passing yet emotionally-significant moment of character development from a casual mention of pandemic grief.


Downton nearly manages to reassemble the entire cast, although the presence of Matthew Goode (Henry Talbot) is noticeably missed. Goode is very in-demand, with many projects in the last two years alone. Fellowes informs the film’s narrative on Goode’s absence, allowing Mary (Michelle Dockery) to enter a flirtationship with film director Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy), which ultimately goes nowhere except to harden Mary further and call into question her happiness. On the one hand, it’s an exciting yet not unprecedented move to let real-life contracts with actors influence their presence or not in a film. Downton’s done it before: most notably for Dan Stevens when he decided to leave the television series. But for Downton, which has such a following and a thematic precedent of overcoming struggles, the move to write in marital troubles based on the absence of Henry Talbot’s actor feels much too easy for this stand-alone film.


The marketing and synopsis for A New Era lead audiences to believe the A-plot of the film revolves around the mystery and extravagance of an inherited villa on the French Riviera. However, the film moves the events surrounding the villa to the B-plot, allowing the film shooting on location at Downton Abbey to take the A-plot. It makes sense in a film based on fan service and touches of metatheatricality. What better way to mark the end of a Downton era in A New Era than making a movie at Highclere Castle about making a movie at Downton? Ultimately, the film shoot at Downtown has the most lasting repercussions and interesting internal and external conflicts that are used until the end of the film. Non-spoiler spoiler alert: the business of inheriting the villa is pretty much over and done with halfway through the movie.


The most exciting aspect of the film is the history lesson on early filmmaking and the transition from silent films to talkies. There are so many historical tidbits that filmmakers, film scholars, and historians will be giddy to see reflected in a big-screen Downton movie. Early filmmaking is such an integral aspect of the film that various technological and social are a joy to see explored and discussed. No, it’s not just a casual mention of The Jazz Singer (1927); A New Era truly puts its chips in to be one of the most enjoyable and detailed films about early filmmaking without being dry or monotonous.


Somehow, A New Era wraps up an entire phenomenon, including the television series and one other stand-alone film, but leaves room for even more possibilities. A New Era is a great place to stop. It could end right here and be neat, contained, and stamped with a pretty bow. However, one wish-list item for this film would be to clean up the unnecessary marital issues of Mary and Henry, but they went there with the plot, and that’s that. Next on the timeline would be the start of the Great Depression; The economic and social ramifications would still rattle Downton’s halls somehow. Again, Fellowes and company could stop here, on the final beat of A New Era, but why would we want them to stop?


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