Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025)

Fans of the TV series, as I am, will enjoy this sentimental franchise finish, taking place in 1930, for its familiar cast and beautiful production values, as I did. Almost all of the ensemble is back, including Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, and Paul Giamatti in the family, and Jim Carter, Brendan Coyle, Joanne Froggatt, Lesley Nicol, Sophie McShera as servants, and many more. A few new actors appear as well. The movie is dedicated to Maggie Smith, who died a year and a half ago at 89.

Director Simon Curtis again takes the helm from the script by series creator/writer Julian Fellowes. The original score by John Lunn is available on Apple Music. There are some fun scenes with Arty Froushan as Noel Coward. The credits say that the singing voice is actually Coward's. And the luscious cinematography, production design, and wardrobe add to the experience, thanks to Ben Smithard, Donal Woods, and Anna Robbins, respectively.

Dockery was last blogged for The Sense of an Ending, Carmichael for A United Kingdom, Bonneville for Viceroy's House, McGovern for Kick-Ass, Giamatti for The Holdovers, Carter for The Good Liar, Coyle for Mary Queen of Scots, McShera for Cinderella, Curtis for Goodbye Christopher Robin, and Fellowes, Lunn, Smithard, Woods, and Robbins for the 2019 movie Downton Abbey. Froggatt and Nicol have no other mentions in these pages besides the cast list in the 2019 version and Froushan is new to me. Full disclosure, there was a Downton Abbey movie in 2022 that I did not see, but I did watch all 52 episodes on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are down with this movie, averaging 91 and 95%, respectively. I streamed it on a plane on March 27 and it is currently available on Netflix.