DOWNTON ABBEY
The king and queen are coming!!!
The king and queen are coming!!!
We return to Downton after many years. I will not go deep into the plot points because of ...well I do not want to ruin it. Before I get into positives and negatives I can tell you I went into this film thinking it was a money grab squeezing the last bit of juice out of its popularity. I was wrong!!!
Positives:
-Maggie Smith I hope gets an Oscar Nom here because she is wonderful. She is 85 years old and her comic timing and delivery was just spot on!! Smith as Violet Crawley and Penelope Wilton as Isobel Grey could have their own film. They play off each other so well.
-As for the rest of the cast they are all great in their small roles, I guess other than Maggie Smith, Allen Leech as Tom Branson has the biggest part in the film and he shines.
-The story works. You find even for the staff "Downstairs", there is a hierarchy, and that higher hierarchy is coming with the queen and king. The battle begins!! It is war!! Of course there are other things going on to add drama. Julian Fellows wrote a drama filled, funny, tear eyed script. Successfully fitting it all in a two hour film (some unnecessary, to note later)
-The look. Director Michael Engler and Cinematographer Ben Smithard must have been thrilled to put this big sweeping film on the big screen. Constantly showing us this big beautiful structure, plus the wonderful looking sets that are beautifully lit using soft lighting and shadows. Oscar Nomination maybe?
Oh...there is a negatives...it is a big one....
-The struggle to find a storylines for all of the characters in a 2 hour film I understand can be difficult. There are a couple storylines that are not needed for sure. Plus any storyline that took the characters away from Downton made the film drop into the abyss. You really felt it, and it made the film drag a bit.
-You will also find two main characters thrown into the film just to throw them into the film,they barely had anything to do, it was obvious they could not make the filming. I would bet they showed up for one day of filming and they may have CGI them in. I thought...what is the point...maybe.
A quick note...for Harry Potter fans...note the wink to Harry Potter between Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) and Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge). The crowd in my screening got it. Will you?
4 stars out of 5 for Downton...a pleasant surprise. Bring tissues.
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