Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)

Directed by Simon Curtis. Starring Michelle Dockery, Hugh Dancy, Maggie Smith, Dominic West, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Kevin Doyle, Laura Haddock, Imelda Staunton, Tuppence Middleton, Allen Leech, Joanne Froggat, Jim Carter, Laura Carmichael, Nathalie Baye, Sophie McShera, Raquel Cassidy, Harry Hadden-Paton, Robert James-Collier, Penelope Wilton, Michael C. Fox, Paul Copley, Lesley Nicol, Samantha Bond. [PG]

Second feature film to revisit the dense upstairs-downstairs-hangers-on world of ITV/PBS’ interwar Yorkshire estate series; more welcoming and less unduly cluttered than the previous effort, but still best appreciated by those with familiarity and affection for the namesake show. Amid an armload of minor sub-plots that offer little more than sophisticated texture and (presumably) fan service, Smith’s health deteriorates after she reveals that she was bequeathed a villa by a deceased French nobleman, and while several Downton residents are away visiting the villa, Dockery’s Lady Mary stays behind to oversee an American film production crew using Downton as a shooting location. The wit is still dry (“They’re very French, the French, aren’t they?” “I suppose they’re bound to be”), as is some of the storytelling, and even for those immersed in this world of the dying aristocracy, there are simply too many characters and frayed story threads for this “super-sized episode” to become cinematically satisfying. A little too far astray in the sudsy waters of melodrama, with Curtis’ starchy direction doing no favors for the airless interiors and artificial scenery, and Haddock’s dubbed lines bit is an old-hat “talkies”-transition cliché by now, but the cast keeps it watchable.

56/100