DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE - Mark Reviews Movies

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Focus Features

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 11, 2025

Change has pretty much been coming for the Crawley family since they were first introduced in "Downton Abbey," and an entire television series and two movies later, it's still on its way in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. The biggest change for this third film and allegedly final installment of the story is that, after the split narrative across two countries in the previous movie, the action returns to the eponymous manor. It's a welcome return.

Screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who wrote or co-wrote the entirety of the television series and all three of the feature movies, also brings back a sense of relaxation and comfort to this third film. The Crawleys and everyone associated with them have experienced so much over the years that they've earned at least a little of that. They definitely get it here, since the most significant conflict in this film is that Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), the eldest daughter of and the heir to the estate, has officially divorced her difficult, envious husband.

That's a major outrage among the English nobility in 1930, though—enough so that Mary is immediately kicked out of a party in London once word of the divorce reaches the hosts from the evening newspapers. She and her parents, Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), must hide under a staircase, lest a pair of attending royals spot a divorced woman in their presence and be insulted by her proximity.

Fellowes is far too attached to the pomp and supposed grandeur of these old ways to really critique them in any meaningful way, which might be the reason no real, definitive change has ever actually come to this aristocratic system in the 15 years since the show began. He is not, however, too married to them to see such absurdity where it exists and for what it is.

The sight of the rather tall Robert slumped beneath that staircase and raising his neck to see if the royal family members have passed them is quite funny, both as a visual and because he feels the need to literally lower himself so out of some quietly agreed-upon courtesy. No one at that party, of course, really considers how discourteous it is to suddenly disinvite a regular guest, simply because the woman's husband was not a proper fit in any way.

Even with that display, however, Robert still clings to the old ways, which raises another minor conflict here. He has declared that his daughter will take over the running of Downton Abbey, but with that promise soon becoming a reality, he gets cold feet.

It doesn't help that his brother-in-law, Cora's brother Harold (Paul Giamatti), has come from the siblings' native United States with some bad news. Their recently deceased mother left them a fine inheritance, but even after the money survived the stock market crash in the previous year, Harold has put most of the cash and family assets in jeopardy. He arrives in London with his financial advisor Gus (Alessandro Nivola), a man so charming that skeptical Mary goes to bed with him—another scandal if word were to get out—and that it's little surprise when the man's true intentions are conveniently revealed.

All of this plotting is, refreshingly, quite anticlimactic, because Fellows and director Simon Curtis (returning from the previous entry) know this is the last chance to spend time with characters who have become quite beloved in those 15 years. Who needs or even wants much plot under those circumstances?

Instead, we get to watch Robert wrestle with his fading glory, power, and influence, just as so many other aristocratic families are doing as the 20th century rolls in more and more social changes. The man is stubborn, to be sure, but once he understands that his time as lord of the estate is drawing to a close, he becomes steadfast in ensuring that his daughter is prepared for the task, accepted by others, and free of having to worry about her parents and the family's diminishing fortunes.

There are many more changes, too, for the "downstairs" characters. Loyal butler Charles Carson (Jim Carter) is about to retire—again, as a couple of characters note. He can't give up the old ways so easily, either, as shown in a subtle comedic bit in which the former butler, having finished polishing the single box of silverware in his cottage, almost reflexively finds himself returning to Downton to start polishing the candlesticks. The rest of the manor's staff eventually give up trying to get him to leave. After coming out of retirement so many times, what would be the point anymore?

Those are the major narrative threads of the film, but it has some small delights, too. They include former footman and screenwriter Joseph (Kevin Doyle) coming up with a ridiculous scheme to meet playwright Noël Coward (Arty Froushan), Mary's maid Anna (Joanne Froggatt) standing up for the lady—literally and figuratively—even though she keeps telling the pregnant maid to sit, and perpetual cook Ms. Patmore (Lesly Nicol) passing her role to Daisy (Sophie McShera) with grace and love.

Some other characters return in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale for one last line and deed or two to remind us what an elaborate tapestry of social class and personality Fellows has developed over more than a decade. It's a fond and fine farewell to this lengthy endeavor, as well as a film with an endearing degree of fondness for its characters.

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