Year Released: 2022
Directed by: Simon Curtis
Created and Written by: Julian Fellowes
Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern
(PG, 125 min.)
Genre: Drama, Historical Fiction, Romance

“Women like us fall into two categories: dragons and fools. You must make sure they think of you as a dragon.” –Violet, Dowager Countess, to Lady Mary

Maggie Smith still owns it, even if we are now into a kinder, gentler Downton Abbey. Her zingers are still there, but milder now that old feuds have been quelled, and alliances have replaced vicious rivalries.

It’s almost enough to make you forget those early caustic encounters and deadly rivalries in the original Masterpiece Theater productions, all six seasons of high-class melodrama.

The series was like Americans before coffee; the films like a contented Englishmen after their scrambled eggs, bacon, and kedgeree.

Julian Fellowes, who created and wrote the series and both films, has really outdone himself here. Violet’s zingers are backed up by Lord Grantham’s and Carson’s, two others holding out against any outcroppings of modernity.

Much of it has to do with Mary persuading her father to accept a lucrative proposal to produce a silent film at the Abbey. Now instead of skewering her family, Violet directs her animus at this affront:

“I’d rather earn a living down a mine,” she observes after watching the tediousness of multiple retakes.

And when, as in The Artist , the emergence of the new “talkies” threatens the silent film era, Violet has more to say:

“I should have thought the best thing about films is that you can’t hear them. Be even better if you couldn’t see them either.”

Nor is Lord Grantham any too pleased about the filming, acquiescing to Mary only because they need funds to repair their roof:

“I think it’s a horrible idea. Actresses plastered in makeup, and actors just plastered,”

So, it’s a good thing, then, when Violet announces that she has inherited a villa in France, even if the reason behind it is shrouded in mystery.

“Do I look like a woman who would turn down a villa in the south of France?”

Now they can ship everyone off there and clear the house for filming. Carson, returning from retirement, is ushered off as well, since the former head butler is even more steeped in tradition than our Dowager Duchess.

And he has great plans for the trip, too.

They’d better be warned. The British are coming. I have found when dealing with foreigners, if one speaks loudly and slowly, they'll bend to your will.

Of course, the trip to the French villa, with Lady Violet inheriting a mansion out from under the wife and children of a Marquis with whom she shared only “a few days of friendship” many, many years ago, recalls the Grantham’s unknown second cousin, Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) becoming the heir to the estate.

The Marqui’ss widow tries some lethal stares when the English usurpers arrive, but they are nothing compared to what Maggie Smith could dish out with just the tilt of her very regal head. Luckily for the widow, her Nemesis is across the channel, taken to her bed over the filming and an unnamed physical decline.

We then shift back between the filming back at Downton Abbey – Mary and the besotted house staff remaining there – and the machinations in France. There the Marquis’s son is as kind and courteous as Lord Grantham eventually was in similar circumstances, but the film stars are not quite what the infatuated staff back home had expected.

Especially the blond bombshell, Myrna Dalgleish (Laura Haddock), who is rude, an iron fist with not even the ragged remnants of a velvet glove. She even has a cockney accent with an edge of vulgarity to boot, as her initial encounter with Lord Grantham exposes:

Lord Grantham: How did you become a film actress?
Myrna Dalgleish: A talent scout spotted me. Because I'm so beautiful.
Lady Edith: It seems wonderfully romantic.
Myrna Dalgleish: Well, it's not that romantic. Not when you know that every man in the room just wants to give you one.

But other things are going on as well. Mary’s husband, Matthew Goode, is the only cast member who does not appear in the new film due to other filming commitments, but Fellowes is up to the task and uses the circumstance to inject a little hint of romance for Mary.

While the actress, Michele Dockery, explains away Goode’s absence with aplomb:

“It’s always like herding cats because there are so many actors. It takes a while to get everybody in one place, at the right time.”

Her character is a bit less composed, however, especially when in the company of the very handsome film director who comes to rely on her more and more:

"There’s trouble in paradise," Jack tells Lady Mary in the trailer for the film. She replies:

"You don’t need me to tell you that marriage is a novel full of plot twists along the way.”

“He’s on love with cars. He’s in love with speed. He’s in love with adventure. He’s also in love with me, I think. But I don’t seem to cancel out the other three.”

***

I will resist getting any more bogged down in plot details, but suffice it to say that the redemption arc continues to play itself out beautifully with a nod to Three Weddings and A Funeral. The ending will have all but the most stoic reaching for their hankies, but smiling beneath their tears as well.

The best Downtown Abbey ever, and what should be a model for moviemakers everywhere. Flawed characters get a chance at redemption; a moral compass instead of relentless nihilism. Not to miss. Especially since it is now on streaming.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Fim-Loving Foodie

Sure, you might be tempted by several wonderful and pretty complex recipes, such as A whole Downton Abbey: A New Era inspired menu .

But Different Drummer is going for something just as tasty and simpler, too. And it is French, too, very fitting for the Downton family expedition to the villa its dowager countess has just inherited.

But best of all, it comes from Different Drummer’s own Appetite for Murder: A Mystery Lover’s Cookbook .

Who wants to be confined to a hot kitchen this time of year? Not all French cooking has to be a marathon of sauces and almost impossible pastries.

Here is something for us lazy summer cooks, a Fluffy French Cream Sauce over Fruit, but just call it by its real name, Creme Fraiche aux Fruits, and you will certainly impress everyone. Rolls off the tongue quite well, doesn’t it?

Even better, Different Drummer lets you in on a little secret for those unable to make it to the closest French market. An American shortcut for the noble creme fraiche, literally “fresh cream,” a rich, heavy country cream with a tart flavor. Similar to our dairy sour cream but richer and sweeter.

Our method may dismay French chefs marinated in food snobbery, but American heiress Cora Grantham would appreciate its efficiency, I think.

Fluffy French Cream Sauce over Fruit (Creme Fraiche aux Fruits)

The noble creme fraiche--literally fresh cream--is a rich, heavy country cream with a tart flavor--similar to our dairy sour cream but richer and sweeter. The French use creme fraiche for many purposes--from thickening and enriching soups and sauces to garnishing desserts and pastries. This easy method of creating the cream enables you to produce a variety of fresh-fruit desserts in minutes.

Ingredients

2/3 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup dairy sour cream
2 to 3 cups assorted fresh fruit (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or sliced peaches)
Ground nutmeg or sugar

Directions

Gradually stir whipping cream into dairy sour cream. Cover and refrigerate no longer than 48 hours. Sprinkle with nutmeg or sugar.

Serve fruit in large goblets topped with the crème fraiche, or layer in tall champagne glasses.

Appetite for Murder; A Mystery Lover’s Cookbook