Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, 2025, 3 ¾ stars

End of an era

Downton Abbey bids fitting farewell

Exclusive to MeierMovies, September 11, 2025

Sing a cinematic swan song for the landed gentry. Downton Abbey is finally over and will soon pass into our collective memories, joining the upstairs-downstairs world that inspired it.

When the show premiered on England’s ITV in 2010 and America’s PBS the following year, it took television by storm and is still regarded by this critic as possibly the finest dramatic, scripted series ever. The first two movies never lived up to that standard, however, with the second (A New Era, from 2022) ending up rather ridiculous and unnecessary, except, of course, for the death of the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith).

But with the latest – and apparently last – installment, creator and writer Julian Fellowes and director Simon Curtis have gotten it mostly right. By returning to the behaviors that made each character special and creating a plot that fits not just those characters but also the current of change in 1930s Britain, Downton is going out the way it came in: stylish, emotional, tonally on-point and quietly profound. In this regard, The Grand Finale is a suitable, sentimental sendoff for an entertainment institution and easily the best of the three films.

A discussion of plot is unnecessary except to say that this latest film feeds not just off events of the previous one (see this Wikipedia article for a refresher) but events that have taken place since that last film, such as Downton’s further financial struggles, the death of Cora’s (Elizabeth McGovern) mother in the United States, domestic drama for Mary (Michelle Dockery),  and Cora’s brother’s (Paul Giamatti) mishandling of the American side of the family fortune. (Giamatti plays a prominent role in this film without overshadowing the core characters.) Let the rest unfold as a surprise, like you did when watching the show. (But if you never watched the show or the previous films, starting with this movie is a bad idea.)

“Sometimes I feel like the past is a more comfortable place than the future,” says Giamatti’s character, as he reflects on his and the family’s financial and social uncertainty.

For Downton’s characters, particularly Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville, still the best of the cast), those words ring true as the world in which he grew up continues to disappear. And, for us, trapped in world that is as foreign to Downton as the surface of Mars, it’s also wonderful to sojourn in the unrecognizable past: pre-World War 2, pre-television, pre-internet, pre-AI, but with hints of the positive changes to come, changes that would lead to a more classless Britain but would inexorably alter the lives of Downton Abbey’s residents, just like they did those of the masters of Highclere Castle, the real Downton.

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For more information on the movie, visit IMDB and Wikipedia. Go here for my review of the first film and here for my review of the second.