Rated: PG
Directed by: Simon Curtis
Written by: Julian Fellowes
Produced by: Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge, Julian Fellowes
Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Kevin Doyle, Joanne Froggatt, Harry Hadden-Paton, Robert James-Collier, Allen Leech, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Tuppence Middleton, Lesley Nicol, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Penelope Wilton, Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye, Dominic West and Jonathan Zaccaï.
‘You rang, m’lady.’
The opening scene of, A New Era, is of course of the rambling castle that is, Downton Abbey.
Someone’s getting married – I’m not going to say who because I don’t want to give anything away, and I don’t know who they are because I never caught the ‘Downton Abbey train’.
I promised myself I’d keep an open mind while seeing all the smiling faces of the cast as they lamented the leaking roof and uttered comments such as, ‘We seem to have brought our butler. I don’t know why.’
I was regretting not grabbing that second glass of bubbles…
It’s all very pleasant. Except the leaking roof. So when an offer is made for Downton Abbey to be used as a set for a film: The Gambler, it’s a matter of suffering a film crew for a month or continuing on with no money to repair the crumbling Abbey.
‘It’ll be exciting,’ is one statement.
One can only hope, I thought.
Then the Dowager, Violet (Maggie Smith) pipes up with, ‘We got through the war, we can get through this.’
Maggie Smith really does deliver the best lines, with plenty of opportunity with not only a film crew and a star that’s beautiful (see Laura Haddock as Myrna Dalgleish) while also being rude and speaking like a fishwife; a letter arrives, stating a villa in the South of France has been bequeathed to the Dowager.
Violet’s unperturbed by the potential scandal, planning to leave the villa to Lady Sybil.
But the Montmirail’s widow is unhappy at the loss of her villa. And frankly insulted.
So while Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) runs the household and keeps the film director, Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy) happy, the majority of the family travel to meet the son and window of the mysterious Monsieur Montmirail. To meet and smooth the transition of the villa, and perhaps find out why the villa was left to the Dowager in the first place.
I want to say I was bored throughout the entire screening, but there was just enough wry humour to keep me engaged.
When Lady Mary utters, ‘I suppose he wasn’t just a lunatic,’ about the now deceased, Monsieur Montmirail, I had to chuckle.
And, ‘They’re very French, aren’t they… The French,’ remarks, Mr. Carson (Jim Carter).
The ‘potty’ humour made the borderline ridiculous, endearing.
Fans with a previous history with the franchise will no doubt be chuffed to see another chapter about the (many) residents of Downton Abbey.
For my taste, Downton Abbey: A New Era was not exciting at all, it turns out – but an agreeable watch with a few chuckles: yawn.
