Julian Fellowes – We Are Movie Geeks

DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE – Review

(L to R) Laura Carmichael stars as Lady Edith, Harry Hadden-Paton as Bertie Hexham, Elizabeth McGovern as Cora Grantham, Hugh Bonneville stars as Robert Grantham and Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary in DOWNTON ABBEY: The Grand Finale, a Focus Features release. Credit: Rory Mulvey / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

It has been a good, long run but DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE is the final bow for the British world of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants, which fans have followed through several seasons on British TV (and PBS here) and then three movies, which have continued the saga.

Series creator/writer Julian Fellowes followed up his successful film GOSFORD PARK and followed the lead of earlier British series “Upstairs, Downstairs” in crafting this tale of a likable noble family in Yorkshire and their equally appealing servants, but made it so much more, by following the changes in Britain in the early 20th century. Starting in 1912 and ending in 1930, the tale of the Crawley family is set in a period of great change in Britain for both the aristocratic class and, with expanding democracy and opportunities, for the people who worked for them.

So many things came together just right in this series to make it both entertaining and engrossing. Julian Fellowes’ great writing and historical research, and a great cast, made this combination of historic storytelling, family drama, and character-driver stories (spiked with plenty of humor) into a surprisingly enjoyable ride, even if costume drama is not your cup of tea. Add to that the incomparable late Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess, whose smart, snappy comebacks and biting, sharply observed comments, became the highlight of many an episode. The mostly British cast was outstanding, included American ex-pat Elizabeth McGovern and Hugh Bonneville, and launching the careers of Michelle Dockery and Dan Stevens, and others. Plus there were all those fabulous British manor house locations and wonderful early 20th century fashions (especially in the 1920s), and it made for great escapist fun. The popular TV show was such a hit that the actual manor house where it was filmed, Highclere Castle, became a tourist destination.

But the time finally comes to say goodbye, and DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE is a good an exit as one could hope for. In this final chapter, the Crawley family is in a kind of holding pattern, as Lady Mary is poised to take over the estate from her father, Lord Grantham, Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), but with dad a bit reluctant to let go. But there is something else to deal with: visitors from America. Lady Grantham, Cora Crawley’s (Elizabeth McGovern) brother Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti) has arrived from the States, with a friend Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), a financial advisor of sorts, and some bad financial news. While the British Crawleys’ fortune survived the Crash, the brother has not done as well. The brother’s American companion is charming if bold, and is also in Britain to see his horse race at Ascot, while helping the brother with his financial mess after the stock market crash.

While the Crawley’s try to sort out Harold’s financial mess, there are subplots aplenty, with is a little scandal with Lady Mary, a truce of sorts from oft- battling sisters, and updates on all the characters’ lives. The story lets us check in with the family, daughters Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) and Edith, Lady Hexham, and son-in-law Tom Branson (Allen Leech), as well as beloved servants, Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and Bates (Brendan Coyle), and butler Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) and housekeeper Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan), and more. There are also returns of earlier characters who have gone on to other things, like Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier), now a theatrical director, and movie star Guy Dexter (Dominic West), who have arrived with playwright Noel Coward (Arty Froushan).

Fellowes weaves the story elements together well, and director Simon Curtis gives us plenty of eye candy with elegant fashions, particularly on Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary, and shots of gorgeous locations and period decor, as the aristocratic Crawley family makes the rounds of upper crust London, back home at Downton Abbey, and capped with a trip to Ascot. Meanwhile, the servants’ lives are working out well, with many set to retire to comfortable cottages and with their newfound spouses, and a country fair sequence near the end lets everyone mingle.

This final chapter captures all the charm of the series, TV and film, and even gives a grand outing at the Ascot races as a last big splashy fling, and ties up all the stories nicely. In fact, this third film is better than the last one as storytelling. The show’s creator Julian Fellowes cleverly sets this final chapter in 1930, not long after the stock market crash of October 1929 that began the Great Depression but before its effects are yet widely felt. That choice puts the characters in a comfortable bubble, where they are unaware of the economic hardships ahead, although viewers are aware that the old high life is coming to an end. The early 1930 time period allows the audience to enjoy a bit more of the fashions and fun of the Downton Abbey world before the darkness of the 1930s Great Depression really descends on their world.

While there are twists and surprises, some tight spots and difficult moments, enough to give the film some tension, things are generally tied up nicely by the story’s end, leaving the audience satisfied that the characters’ lives, while profoundly changed, will go on, with no need for a sequel.

DOWNTON ABBEY THE GRAND FINALE opens in theaters on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA – Review

Hugh Bonneville as the Earl of Grantham, Elizabeth McGovern as the Countess of Grantham and Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith Hexham, in DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA, a Focus Features release. Photo Credit: Ben Blackall / © 2022 Focus Features LLC

The saga of the aristocratic Crawley family continues with DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA, the second movie inspired by the hit British historical drama TV series by Julian Fellowes and featuring the same beloved cast. One does not have to have seen the first movie, or even the series, to follow along with the movie’s plot but you will missing out on a lot of the background details and meanings if you haven’t.

The TV show Julian Fellowes (GOSFORD PARK) created mixes history, drama and soap, as a family of English country aristocrats in Yorkshire, and their servants, face the changes of the early twentieth century, a time of major social and economic shifts for the class system and British society. That Downton Abbey’s story line followed both the upstairs and downstairs characters, their lives and loves, as the new century brings big changes, was, and remains, a key part of the series’ success, along with its fine mostly British cast that includes the venerable Maggie Smith as the wisecracking Dowager Countess, Penelope Wilton as her verbal sparring partner Isobel, Hugh Bonneville as the Earl of Grantham and Elizabeth McGovern as his American-born wife Cora. Lady Grantham. The series also offers up glorious manor houses, vintage cars, and fabulous 1920s costumes, along with plenty of period charm.

This new Downton film finds the Crawley household celebrating another wedding, of former chauffeur Tom Branson (Allen Leech) and newly-minted heiress Lucy (Tuppence Middleton). But attention quickly shifts away from the newly-weds, as the family learn of another development: the surprise inheritance of a country estate in the south of France by the Dowager (Maggie Smith), sparking lots of questions about her past – again. While the Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and Lady Grantham, Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern) and some family members prepare to visit the new estate in France, at the invitation of the Marquis de Montmirail (Jonathan Zaccai), the son of the man leaving the bequest, a movie company has offered a handsome fee for the use of the manor house for a film shoot, for a silent movie period drama starring matinee idol Guy Dexter (Dominic West), an offer too tempting for Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) to refuse.

The second film delivers all the period gorgeousness fans expect and progresses all the characters’ stories nicely, tying up a few more romantic threads along the way. All the favorite characters are back except one, Matthew Goode as Lady Mary’s husband Henry Talbot. In the film, Henry is off doing car stuff, since Goode was not available because he was filming the Godfather mini-series “The Offer.” The characters look little changed from the last film, although Bonneville looks slimmer and more tanned than usual.

While either the movie crew story or the South of France story could have presented plentiful opportunities, doing both feels at first a bit like a misstep. The divided story lines send parts of the family and staff to different directions, to differing corners and split our focus. Yet Julian Fellowes brings them, and the family. back together nicely.

The scenes in France are particularly beautiful, providing a new lavish setting for posh partying, while the movie production story offers a bit of fun, with star-struck servants encountering the reality of stars they idolized on screen plus playful glimpses of silent and early sound film-making. The movie making story makes a nice little reference to Fellowes’ GOSFORD PARK, his film that was a kind of precursor to Downton. New romances and new life possibilities bloom under the lights at home and under the stars abroad, while the family also faces other, less happy changes.

This second movie ties up a lot of stories nicely, and could be a fitting final chapter, but Fellowes also leaves the door open a crack for a third movie, following some new threads or even spin offs of some character’s story lines. Either way, it provides an enjoyable, satisfying experience for fans of the series.

DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA opens in theaters on Friday, May 20.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

THE CHAPERONE – Review

*Elizabeth McGovern in THE CHAPERONE. Photo by Karin Catt Courtesy of PBS Distribution*

The prospect of a film about the iconic silent film star Louise Brooks was so tantalizing. The star with the sleek black bob and bold gaze was the most forward of the screen’s stars representing women breaking the social conventions in the Roaring ’20s.

THE CHAPERONE is a tale of Louise Brooks at 16,as she is just beginning her path to stardom, which made THE CHAPERONE seem irresistible. Yet, despite a fine cast led by Elizabeth McGovern and young Haley Lu Richardson plus a script by Julian Fellowes. THE CHAPERONE falls short of that promise.

This PBS production reunites “Downton Abbey” writer Julian Fellowes and star Elizabeth McGovern in another period drama. Yet, directed by Michael Engler, in his first theatrical release after a long career in television, THE CHAPERONE feels like a TV movie. Despite nice locations and pretty costumes, it feels smaller and limited, and too often the dialog becomes flat, offering simplified social commentary from a modern view, a flaw often found in TV dramas. To their credit, the cast get all they can out of the script, co-written by Fellowes and Engler, and at times the film works. It is not so much a bad film as an uneven one, falling short of its dazzling promise.

After seeing 16-year-old Louise Brooks (Haley Lu Richardson) perform a modern dance piece as part of a fundraiser in Topeka, Kansas, society matron Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern) volunteers to accompany her to New York, after overhearing Louise’s mother Myra (Victoria Hill) talking about her trouble finding a chaperone. Talented Louise has been accepted as a student at the cutting-edge Denishaw modern dance school in New York. The ambitious, rebellious Kansas-born teen dreams of being an Isadora Duncan-style dancer but she is also chaffing to escape her conventional hometown Wichita.

Norma Carlisle has her own reasons for wanting to travel to New York. Something has gone wrong in her marriage to her successful lawyer husband (Campbell Scott), which we learn about later in flashbacks, and despite the material comfort of her life, she is searching for a change.

As the title suggests, THE CHAPERONE isn’t really about the star-to-be Louise Brooks but about the fictional chaperone character. Rather than the young star’s tale told through the chaperone’s eyes, we get the chaperone’s story with the young star as a supporting character. It is the 60-ish Norma who goes on a journey of change, while the confident young Louise does not change. Norma is interested in theater and art and recoils in horror when a socialite friend tells her she is joining the KKK. But she’s also a supporter of Prohibition and very prim and proper, insisting that Louise behave like a lady. On one level, it is a midlife crisis type of tale but scriptwriter Julian Fellowes also loads the story down with an array of social issues, including contemporary one.

The cast also includes Bythe Danner, in a remarkable single scene that is an emotional pivot point for McGovern’s character. In well-drawn portrayals, Miranda Otto and Robert Fairchild play dance innovators Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, who founded and run the Denishawn dance studio.

Geza Rohrig, the actor who was so good in SON OF SAUL, plays a handyman at the orphanage where McGovern’s chaperone goes seeking answers about her birth parents, and a romance story blooms between. Despite the script’s problems, the cast work hard to rise above it, and occasionally succeed. Haley Lu Richardson is a young actress with a lot of promise, but seems a bit miscast as Louise Brooks. She does not look much like Brooks but effectively channels her in the dance sequences and captures some of her fire and defiant style in other scenes. A particularly strong example is a scene where Louise sneaks out to a speakeasy. When confronted, Louise is not embarrassed or apologetic but breaths in Norma’s face, saying “That’s gin” with a defiantly grin.

Sadly, such moments of fire are too rare. The film follows the chaperone and her charge in New York, building up a relationship between the fiery future star and the chaperone who is increasingly questioning her own life choices. But then, frustratingly, the film skips over all of Louise Brooks film career, and reunites them years later in Wichita after Brooks returns home, the second half of a framing device that opens the film.

It is not a bad film so much as a disappointing one. Mostly it whets the appetite for a film that is really about Louise Brooks. THE CHAPERONE opens Friday, Apr. 12,at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Hailee Steinfeld and Douglas Booth Play The Star-Crossed Lovers In ROMEO & JULIET Trailer

“A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

Relativity Media has released the first trailer for their upcoming film ROMEO & JULIET – starring Academy Award nominee Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Stellan Skarsgard, Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti and Ed Westwick. William Shakespeare’s classic story has been adapted by award-winning writer Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) allowing a new generation to discover the timeless tale of everlasting love.

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An ageless tragedy from the world’s most renowned author is reimagined for the 21st Century and told in the lush traditional setting it was written. Many will undoubtedly know director Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 ROMEO + JULIET starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. A fine version in it’s own right.

But before you see the latest adaptation, try to catch Franco Zeffirelli’s ROMEO AND JULIET. The beautiful 1968 film features Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey as the teenage, star-crossed lovers.

Also featuring Kodi Smit-McPhee (Benvolio), Ed Westwick (Tybalt), Damian Lewis (Lord Capulet), Natascha McElhone (Lady Capulet), Tomas Arana (Lord Montague), Laura Morante (Lady Montague), and Lesley Manville (The Nurse), Relativity Media will release ROMEO AND JULIET in theaters October 11th.

Be sure to check out ROMEO & JULIET on:
Instagram: Romeoandjulietthefilm
Twitter: @romeojulietfilm
Facebook: Facebook.com/romeoandjulietthefilm
#RomeoandJuliet

First Photo Of Hailee Steinfeld and Douglas Booth In Julian Fellowes’ ROMEO AND JULIET

Douglas Booth and Hailee Steinfeld are ROMEO AND JULIET in this first look at the movie.

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare’s epic and searing tale of love, is revitalized on screen by writer Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) and director Carlo Carlei (The Flight of the Innocent). An ageless story from the world’s most renowned author is reimagined for the 21st Century.

This adaptation is told in the lush traditional setting it was written, but gives a new generation the chance to fall in love with the enduring legend.

With an all-star cast including Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Paul Giamatti (Friar Laurence) and Stellan Skarsgard (Prince of Verona), it affords those unfamiliar with the tale the chance to put faces to the two names they’ve undoubtedly heard innumerable times: Romeo and Juliet.

New Video Of THE TOURIST

Check out Angelina Jolie & Johnny Depp in a brand new video from THE TOURIST.

Johnny Depp also stars as an American tourist whose flirtatious encounter with a stranger (Jolie) leads to a web of intrigue, romance and danger against the breathtaking backdrop of Paris and Venice.

THE TOURIST will hit theaters on December 10th, 2010. Visit the film’s official site here and on Facebook here.

Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck with star Angelina Jolie on the set of GK Films’ THE TOURIST.

THE TOURIST Trailer First Look

Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for THE TOURIST starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.

It looks good…but Depp looks old and puffy. Not cute. He ain’t exactly in Jack Sparrow form either. Just look at the pics of him and Penelope Cruz from the next POTC movie – totally different. We get it, you live in France…but how about we lay off the croissants?? News fah-lash Johnny….that’s ANGELINA JOLIE in the movie with you…..you can’t look like that next to her.

Synopsis:

Johnny Depp stars as an American tourist whose playful dalliance with a stranger leads to a web of intrigue, romance and danger in THE TOURIST. During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, Frank (Depp) unexpectedly finds himself in a flirtatious encounter with Elise (Angelina Jolie), an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Paris and Venice, their whirlwind romance quickly evolves as they find themselves unwittingly thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

THE TOURIST will hit theaters on December 10th, 2010.

Visit the film’s official site here and on Facebook here.

THE TOURIST Goes On Holiday In December

Sony Pictures has announced that the Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie romantic thriller THE TOURIST is now set to open December 10th, according to Box Office Mojo. Oscars anyone?

A remake of French thriller ANTHONY ZIMMER, THE TOURIST features Depp as an American vacationing in Venice, Italy, who, while attempting to romance Jolie’s character, becomes embroiled in a web of international intrigue and suspense. This year has already been a good one for Depp and Jolie, as they have each had hits in ALICE IN WONDERLAND ($334.2 million) and SALT ($104.2 million and counting), respectively. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who won the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2007 for Cold War drama THE LIVES OF OTHERS, THE TOURIST will debut opposite THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER and David O. Russell’s THE FIGHTER.

THE TOURIST, written by Julian Fellowes, Christopher McQuarrie, and Jeffrey Nachmanoff, also stars Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, and Timothy Dalton. GK Films, which financed the film, and Sony Pictures will distribute it.

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