Downton Abbey, screenplay by Julian Fellowes - Nine out of 10

Downton Abbey, screenplay by Julian Fellowes

Nine out of 10

This is an excellent, formidable production that highlights the British School of Cinema at its best, showcasing exceptional, superb acting (on a side note, this cinephile has recently seen The Irishman and finds the two films almost equally powerful, but the performance of the once fantastic Al Pacino is inferior to what the cast of Downton Abbey offers audiences) with actors that form a perfect ensemble, without a strident note, as seemed to be the case with the aforementioned Martin Scorsese achievement, where one actor is somewhat at odds with the rest…

For those who have seen the equally entertaining series, the subject, setting, family and connections are familiar, although there are some new highlights here, the main point, the zenith of the movie being the visit of the king and queen and the big and small dramatic complications that this rare honor brings, from the attempts made by one who hates the royals, to the complicated arrangement that such a guest brings with him, the entourage, the preposterous, pompous personnel (one of whom steals) that reduces to humility the known butlers – the one who had retired, but is brought to active service to deal with the serious challenge, and the one in office, who has a brush with law, because of his sexual orientation which was punished by law at the time…

Imelda Staunton, one of the best British performers, plays Violet Crawley, an aristocrat from the entourage of the royals, a new figure for the series fans, who has a maid that seems to inherit her fortune, causing the wrath of the invincible, often hilarious, but also infuriating Violet Crawley aka the unforgettable, iconic Maggie Smith, up to the end when the secret is revealed (the one that would stay in the dark here) and the lady that towers over Downton Abbey, often influencing her son, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, would show remarkable emotion, genuine emotional intelligence.

The team of servants from Downton Abbey has to engage in a conflict with the visiting employees of the Royal House, from the manager to the French chef, because while they felt – most of them, with the notable exception of Daisy Mason – honored by the visit – the hilarious, admirable Mr. Molesley aka excellent Kevin Doyle, is actually so overwhelmed that he provides quite a few mirthful, buoyant scenes when he is flabbergasted by her royal highness, the queen – and see the fact that they are actually excluded from any task and hence a contact, a feeling of satisfaction as a provocation and inadmissible in ‘their own house’.

The ‘rebellion’ has some amusing effects, for they all conspire to put the chef to sleep, make a call to the man in charge to ask him to leave the premises on an invented reason, lock some others in their own room and when the case required, they used information about misbehavior or plain theft to make the visiting crew abide by their demands…

It is a formidable motion picture, which can be used in schools of acting, with everything in the right place, the task of organizing a very large team is daunting, but handled here with perfect ease.