Maggie Smith

DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA: harmless enough

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Photo caption: Hugh Bonneville in DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA. Courtesy of Focus Features.

In Downton Abbey: A New Era, writer Julian Fellowes adds a chapter to the saga of the characters he created in the beloved television series. It follows the 2019 movie Downton Abbey which I liked and thought had wrapped up all the story lines. But, apparently, there was more wrapping up to do, and Downton Abbey: A New Era begins with a wedding, ends with a funeral and a birth, and constitutes a fitting farewell to Maggie Smith’s unforgettable Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.

The trailer is misleading, and suggests a fish-out-of-water romp with the most English of aristocrats and servants visiting France. Some characters do go to France, but they uncover a dramatic mystery that goes to the roots of the family’s identity. While they are gone, Lady Mary rents the Great House to a movie studio as a set, just as silent films are being replaced by the talkies; the predictable culture clash ensues.

This time, Hugh Bonneville gets to showcase his acting chops. Usually his Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, stands around in stiff correctness, placidly content with the old ways and irritated by any modernity, while smarter female relatives and servants manage up. In Downton Abbey: A New Era, he experiences the strongest emotions, and his fear of loss illuminates what really means the most to him.

To appreciate what his lordship faces in France, it bears remembering that the very first two episodes of Downton Abbey revolved around that most arcane rule of heredity, that of the entailment of estates. As they obsessed over breaking the entail, the characters seemed dressed for the 1900s, but with their feet firmly planted in the 13th century. Here is the best explanation of hereditary property laws and their original rationale.

On a lighter note, I must observe that the inept Molesley (Kevin Doyle), whose innocent earnestness led him into the most spectacular faux pas, has grown into the series’ funniest character not named Violet.

Maggie Smith in DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA, Courtesy of Focus Features.

We do get to enjoy a dose of Maggie Smith’s wonderful Violet. The cast does well in general, and Dominic West is great fun as silent film star Guy Dexter.

The one thing I disliked in the film is admittedly an Inside Baseball complaint. The character of the French aristocrat’s mother is one-dimensional and never evolves. That doesn’t bother me, but this stiff, underwritten minor character is played by Nathalie Baye, who is France’s greatest screen actress. (think Meryl Streep level). It’s a waste of Baye’s time and talent.

Director Simon Curtis doesn’t waste a second letting the camera linger on something that doesn’t move the plot; some of the transtions are abrupt, but at least the movie doesn’t drag. Curtis is a prolific TV director who has only directed five feature films (one of them being the very good My Week with Marilyn).

If you’re not already a Downton Abbey fan, there isn’t anything much in this movie for you. But if you are a Downton Abbey fan, it will be entertaining. Downton Abbey: A New Era is now in theaters.

DVD of the Week: Quartet

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Quartet, an ensemble geezer comedy, is really an excuse for four brilliant actors (Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins) to show their chops.  It’s set in a retirement home for retired musicians.  The residents are preparing for an annual benefit performance, and the long-estranged ex-wife of a resident is moving in.

The most interesting character is the one played by Pauline Collins – a vivacious woman who may have always been ditzy and now has very little short-term memory. In 1996, Collins won a Tony and was nominated for an Oscar for the title role in Shirley Valentine.

Tom Courtenay plays a man still devastated by a bad breakup decades before.  There’s a wonderful scene in which he explains opera to a class of working class teens by comparing it to rap.  Courtenay is best known for The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Dr. Zhivago (1965), The Dresser (1983), but was excellent more recently in the overlooked Last Orders (2001).

Maggie Smith and Billy Connolly are very good in familiar roles.  The irrepressible Connolly is very funny as a particularly randy old gentleman.  Smith’s character is in her sweet spot – not unlike the sharp-edged but increasingly vulnerable gals she played in Gosford Park, Downton Abbey and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  The actors playing the other residents are delightful, including a passel of opera stars from the 70s and 80s, Sinatra’s European trumpet player and more.

This is the first movie directed by Dustin Hoffman, and he did an able job.  He takes advantage of the beautiful pastoral location, paces the film well and, as one would expect, enables the actors to turn in very fine performances.  Quartet is just a lark, but not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

Quartet is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Vudu, YouTube and other VOD outlets.

DVD/Stream of the week: the orginal Downton Abbey

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Fans of Downton Abbey – do not despair because Season 3 has run its course.   Before he created Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes wrote the 2001 film Gosford Park, also set at the estate of an English aristocrat in the 1920s. The period between the world wars marked the final decline of the Upstairs Downstairs world, and Fellowes, descended from such an upper class family, grew up with relatives who had lived through it.  In fact, he modeled the scathingly dismissive character of Constance, Countess of Trentham (Maggie Smith), after his own great-aunt.

Gosford Park won an Oscar for its legendary director, Robert Altman.  Altman was a master of weaving together characters and multiple story lines, employing the kind of simultaneous, overlapping speech that people use in real life.  In Gosford Park, instead of recording all the actors with the normal boom microphone, he placed radio microphones on each of twenty actors in the large scenes.  The result, a triumph of cinematic sound design, is that we can hear key lines of dialogue amidst the realistic cacophony of a large gathering, and our attention can move from group to group within a single camera shot.

Ever unconventional, Altman also showed his genius in the solitary scenes.  In one, Helen Mirren’s character has repaired to her own room to reflect on an emotionally shattering development.  Instead of a closeup on Mirren’s face, Altman shoots in long shot, allowing Mirren to act with her whole body and emphasizing the loneliness of her life and the situation.

Altman was also known for attracting very deep, top rate casts.  Gosford Park contains exceptional performances by Mirren, Kelly Macdonald and Emily Watson.  Watson has an outburst at a formal dinner that leaves the audience gasping.  American audiences had only seen Clive Owen in the modest art house film Croupier, and the brooding determination in his Gosford Park performance helped make him a star.

As in Downton Abbey, Maggie Smith gets some great lines and makes the most of them.  Her performance triggered a stream of spunky roles for Smith, including in the Harry Potter movies, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Quartet and, of course, as Downton Abbey’s Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.

Gosford Park is a great movie, and you’ll recognize its world as Downton Abbey’s.  Gosford Park is available on DVD and streaming from Netflix Instant.

Quartet: geezers at the top of their game

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Quartet, an ensemble geezer comedy, is really an excuse for four brilliant actors (Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins) to show their chops.  It’s set in a retirement home for retired musicians.  The residents are preparing for an annual benefit performance, and the long-estranged ex-wife of a resident is moving in.

The most interesting character is the one played by Pauline Collins – a vivacious woman who may have always been ditzy and now has very little short-term memory. In 1996, Collins won a Tony and was nominated for an Oscar for the title role in Shirley Valentine.

Tom Courtenay plays a man still devastated by a bad breakup decades before.  There’s a wonderful scene in which he explains opera to a class of working class teens by comparing it to rap.  Courtenay is best known for The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Dr. Zhivago (1965), The Dresser (1983), but was excellent more recently in the overlooked Last Orders (2001).

Maggie Smith and Billy Connolly are very good in familiar roles.  The irrepressible Connolly is very funny as a particularly randy old gentleman.  Smith’s character is in her sweet spot – not unlike the sharp-edged but increasingly vulnerable gals she played in Gosford Park, Downton Abbey and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  The actors playing the other residents are delightful, including a passel of opera stars from the 70s and 80s, Sinatra’s European trumpet player and more.

This is the first movie directed by Dustin Hoffman, and he did an able job.  He takes advantage of the beautiful pastoral location, paces the film well and, as one would expect, enables the actors to turn in very fine performances.  Quartet is just a lark, but not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

DVD of the Week: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

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As you can see from the trailer, this story of aged Brits seeking a low-budget retirement in India looks like enjoyable fluff with a great cast.  I was expecting a fish-out-of-water comedy, but found much more than that.  Besides dealing with the culture shock issues (which are plenty funny), the characters each forge their own journeys of self-discovery.

Of course, the cast is a superb collection of British acting talent:  Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith,  Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey).  Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire is their genial and scattered host.

Nighy is especially brilliant as a guy trapped too long by his own profound decency.  Dench delivers an equally outstanding performance as a woman determined to make her own way for the first time.  In another acting gem, Tom Wilkinson follows a thread from his secret past and uncovers a moving revelation.

But those are just the highlights.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is justifiably the biggest indie hit of the year.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: much more than a fish-out-of-water comedy

by

As you can see from the trailer, this story of aged Brits seeking a low-budget retirement in India looks like enjoyable fluff with a great cast.  I was expecting a fish-out-of-water comedy, but found much more than that.  Besides dealing with the culture shock issues (which are plenty funny), the characters each forge their own journeys of self-discovery.

Of course, the cast is a superb collection of British acting talent:  Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith,  Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey).  Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire is their genial and scattered host.

Nighy is especially brilliant as a guy trapped too long by his own profound decency.  Dench delivers an equally outstanding performance as a woman determined to make her own way for the first time.  In another acting gem, Tom Wilkinson follows a thread from his secret past and uncovers a moving revelation.

But those are just the highlights.  Go see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the rest.