{"id":19111,"date":"2019-09-19T14:20:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T21:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=19111"},"modified":"2019-09-19T14:20:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T21:20:53","slug":"downton-abbey-is-an-entertaining-and-nostalgic-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=19111","title":{"rendered":"DOWNTON ABBEY is An Entertaining and Nostalgic Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The British series Downton Abbey<\/em> ran for six seasons and became something of a worldwide phenomenon, captivating viewers with its decades-spanning story intertwining the lives of a seemingly wealthy family and their servants living on a large estate. Over the years, many stories and plotlines developed. Some were filled with happiness, others with tragedy and several including a combination of both. Eventually, the cast and crew tied up loose ends for good in a grandiose finale. But as we all know, a franchise this successful is often never truly over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Indeed, the original creator and cast are back for a\nfilm adaptation that continues to chronicle the characters, or at least give\nviewers a taste of what has occurred since the finale. Admittedly, the show ended\non a complete note, leaving one to wonder if any new drama or interest could be\nestablished over two hours. Surprisingly, the answer is yes. While I can\u2019t\nimagine anyone coming in cold and finding themselves engrossed (they\u2019ll have a\ndifficult enough time just sorting out who is who and how they relate to one\nanother), it does succeed. The movie does require time early on to find its\nfooting, but once it introduces conflict, it delivers plenty of fun that will\nplease fans of the show and even give a few updates and bits of extra closure\nto some of the characters living on the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Set only a couple of years after the end of the\nseries, the story begins with Earl of Grantham Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville)\nand his wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) receiving a letter from Buckingham\nPalace. It informs them that King George V and Queen Mary are undertaking a\nRoyal tour and will be visiting Downtown Abbey. This sends the house in a tizzy\nas arrangements must be made to prepare for a celebration. It forces the family\n(who are still struggling with failing finances and the fall of the aristocracy)\nto contend with an estranged family relation with ties to the Queen, Lady\nBagshaw (Imelda Staunton). Additionally, a mysterious figure with an unknown\nagenda arrives, and the servants must endure the King\u2019s snobbish and nasty\nRoyal Staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned, it all seemed a bit awkward early on,\nsimply because it requires some time to create and develop new concerns and\nconflicts between the characters. But once the Royal Staff arrives and the\ncharacters are trading barbs, the movie begins to really get cooking. There are\na great number of characters to cover, but the movie manages to move between\nthem quickly and efficiently.  Thankfully,\njust about everyone gets a moment or two to shine and make an impression\nonscreen amidst the hectic schedule of events, particularly when the staff\nconspire to wrestle control of the household back from the King\u2019s interlopers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most of the Crawleys become caught up in the Bagshaw\nsubplot and are forced into dealing with financial matters, allowing for some\neffective verbal jabs between family matriarch Violet (Maggie Smith) and\u2026.\nwell\u2026  just about everyone else around\nher. However, a few less showy characters do get a little more screen time in\nthis follow-up. Tom Branson (Allen Leech) is given more to do this time out, as\nthe Irishman struggles with his feelings about hosting the royal family and\ncatches the attention of a few visitors. The plight of butler Thomas Barrow\n(Robert James-Collier) is also examined in more detail and there\u2019s some great\ncomic relief from schoolteacher and occasional footman Molesley (Kevin Doyle)\nwho probably gets the film\u2019s biggest laugh thanks to an incredibly awkward\nexchange at the big dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The technical specs are quite good as well, with some\nwider aerial shots of the grounds and widescreen photography adding extra scope\nto the proceedings. And of course, the elaborate manor sets and period\ncostuming is impressive to behold. However, if one isn\u2019t familiar with the\ntelevision series, this movie isn\u2019t likely to convert them. But for a movie\nthat didn\u2019t initially seem like it needed to be made at all, it does recapture\nthe ambiance of the original show and manages to elicit the same kind of feelings\nand emotions fans will have experienced during its original run. As such, Downton\nAbbey<\/em> remains an entertaining and nostalgic trip. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British series Downton Abbey ran for six seasons and became something of a worldwide phenomenon, captivating viewers with its decades-spanning story intertwining the lives of a seemingly wealthy family and their servants living on a large estate. Over the years, many stories and plotlines developed. Some were filled with happiness, others with tragedy and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,741,1110,3559,4864,6195,6196,6197,6198,6251,6825,9460,9684,11619,11764,12913,15922,17166,17400,18035,18059,19695,23383],"class_list":["post-19111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-adaptation","tag-allen-leech","tag-british","tag-crawley","tag-downton-abbey","tag-downton-abbey-film-review","tag-downton-abbey-movie-review","tag-downton-abbey-review","tag-drama","tag-elizabeth-mcgovern","tag-hugh-bonneville","tag-imelda-staunton","tag-kevin-doyle","tag-king","tag-maggie-smith","tag-period","tag-robert-james-collier","tag-royalty","tag-sequel","tag-servants","tag-television","tag-tv-series"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}