★★★★☆
Closing out the trilogy, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale offers long-time fans one final treat. As the final spin-off, the film serves to tie the bow on the story of the great estate, the members of its family, and their domestics.
Following the death of the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith), the stock market crash, and the divorce of Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), the Grantham family has noticeably aged when we first get a glimpse of them in the front row of a packed theatre.
Scandal breaks out when news of Lady Mary’s divorce excludes her from a ball. She instead stays behind to host her American uncle Harold (Paul Giamatti) and his financial advisor Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola). The latter’s presence at Downton raises several eyebrows among the Granthams.
Mary’s brief liaison with Gus threatens to compromise her position as Downton’s heir, while
Harold distresses his sister Cora, Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern), with revelations of
squandered inheritance.
At the Royal Ascot races, Gus is in the midst of pressuring Lady Mary into risky financial schemes when Tom Branson (Allen Leech) uncovers him as a fraud with a history of white-collar crime. Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) confronts him directly, criticizing the “Yankee way of business” and keeping the Crawleys from ruin.
With Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora preparing to retire to the Dower House, they cede responsibility to Mary, affirming her stewardship of the estate.
Despite being a tremendously sentimental finale, the plot felt crammed. Award-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes tried to compress a season’s worth of twists and turns into a single feature film. Considering the franchise follows the lives of the Grantham family, their friends, and the lives of Downton’s domestics, this is a monumental task. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly realized in a tidy manner.
The finale also feels overly familiar. The recurring crisis of the Grantham family being on the brink of financial ruin—and then finding a last-minute solution—has been revisited so often it borders on self-parody. For a closing chapter, the choice to lean once again on this well-worn dilemma feels more like fatigue than suspense.
The film does, however, succeed in being an affectionate farewell. Beloved figures such as Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) and Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) are granted graceful retirements, with their devotion to the house intact. Departed characters return in a vision-like montage that pulls at the heartstrings, reminding viewers of the series’ many arcs.
The most poignant tribute arrives in the final frames: a dedication to Dame Maggie Smith, who passed away last fall, following a lingering shot of her as the indomitable Dowager Countess.
The screen then widens to Cora and Robert walking away from the estate at sunset—a visual closure on their family and its legacy. Whether you are a devoted follower or a one-time viewer, the finale offers a satisfying epilogue, balancing the nostalgia and delivering a proper English goodbye.
